The Health Research Authority (HRA) has started a project to apply lessons learnt from the fast-track review of COVID-19 research studies to enhance our research ethics review service.
We want to provide a research ethics review service which is more proportionate and efficient and continues to facilitate ethical research which is in the interests of research participants.
Led by the HRA, the programme will be run in partnership with fellow regulators including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the organisations who review research in the devolved administrations.
Juliet Tizzard, Director of Policy and Partnerships at the HRA‘This is an exciting and important project for the HRA and we know that many of our stakeholders will be keen to get involved. We’ll share more information soon about opportunities to be part of the programme.’
In its first phase, the programme will test a fast-track research ethics review process for a limited set of studies, testing whether ambitious timelines can be achieved whilst maintaining quality, outside of an emergency setting. We will be engaging with all relevant stakeholders throughout the process.