Making it easy to do research that people can trust.
Foreword by Matt Westmore, Chief Executive
As we present the Health Research Authority’s Business Plan for 2024-25, we are at a critical juncture for the HRA, and for health and social care research. This year, more than ever, our actions and decisions are pivotal as we develop and implement improvements across our systems. Our primary focus - not just for the next 12 months, but towards our longer-term vision to ensure the UK is a great place to do research – is on how best to help people plan, approve, set up, manage, and complete research.
Transparent and accessible health and social care research that people can trust is essential to deliver the Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future and directly contributes to the goal of making the UK the best place in the world to base clinical research. This will improve the health and wellbeing of the public and our wider society. A vibrant, inclusive, and collaborative UK research sector means people can get involved in research that matters to them today, and that we all benefit from the findings of research in the future, helping address health inequalities.
The HRA is integral to ensuring the very best UK research can be undertaken. We ensure that the research system in the UK operates with efficiency, effectiveness, and above all, is trustworthy. This year is particularly crucial for us at the HRA, as it represents the last full year in the delivery of our current strategy, making it easy to do research that people can trust.
In 2024-25 we will continue to provide our essential research approvals services, including HRA Approval, Research Ethics Committee (REC) review, Confidentiality Advisory Group recommendations and Technical Assurances. We expect to receive, improve and approve around 4,000 studies and 16,000 amendments.
2024-25 also marks a significant phase in our work continuing to improve the wider process for conducting research - from the initial application for regulatory approvals, through to study start-up. We will continue to enhance this process through planned developments and improvements to our research systems as part of our broader digital transformation work, and work on the integrated research application system (IRAS) of the future. In particular, we are committed to working with our partners to lead on the delivery of the recommendations from the Government’s response to the independent review of UK commercial trials. We are committed to developing the HRA as an organisation continually learning and evolving, and innovating so we can achieve the best outcomes for the best value.
A key focus of improving how to do research in the UK, and to engender trust, is how we continue to include people in both research and the research process. We know that greater research transparency and public involvement in the design and conduct of research can earn trust and make it possible for more people to take part. Widening participation in research will help address health inequalities. As a regulator, we can set expectations and support researchers to meet them, changing research culture so that it always puts people first. Over the next 12 months and beyond we will continue to grow our networks and work in partnership with the HRA Community, the wider research community and the public so that we include, involve and are informed by diverse perspectives to help us do this well.
We aim to make research inclusive for everyone, ensuring it addresses the issues that matter most to them, conducted and reported in an open and transparent way, earning and maintaining trust and confidence. This will make it easier to do high quality health and social care research, in a way that includes and works with the people affected by the outcomes.
To do this we will create more opportunities for people to be involved in decision making, supporting our staff to involve people in our work in meaningful ways. We will listen to and involve a diverse range of voices and experiences to inform our processes and decision making. Through these activities we will ensure a high quality of public and professional involvement in our work and across the health and care research system, embedding good practice and a person-centred approach in everything we do. Above all, we will communicate and share information in ways that are accessible, in language that everybody can understand.
Whilst it is a longer-term programme of work, 2024-25 is an important year for the delivery of our research systems programme. This large transformation programme will transform how research is managed in the UK, making it faster and easier for research studies to be set up and delivered. The enhancements we are implementing will serve as a foundation for future innovations in health research, as we build upon the first footings of the programme.
However, alongside these ambitious goals and delivery plans, and our core responsibility to always seek best value for the public purse, come some challenging decisions as to how we prioritise our work. This year, we have had to make some difficult choices about what we will concentrate on doing, and how we can confidently and realistically achieve our goals. Each decision has been guided by a commitment to focus our resources on the initiatives that have the highest impact and benefits for the research community and the public.
As we navigate this pivotal year, our dedication to our mission, and our commitment to patients and the public has never been stronger. We remain committed to involving the public in our work, ensuring transparency, and pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in health and social care research. And as a mature, resilient, organisation with a clearly defined core purpose across the wider research ecosystem, we will continue to invest both our time and resources towards the maximum public benefit. Working together, in collaboration with system partners and the public, we can all thrive and continue to accelerate and improve UK health and social care research, with and for everyone.
I would like to thank all of our staff and communities for your continued support and engagement with the HRA, for the hard work and contributions which have brought us to this point. Your work, trust and collaboration are invaluable to us, as we work to enhance health and social care through trusted, efficient, and effective research by the public, for the public, and to the benefit of all.
Dr Matt WestmoreChief Executive, Health Research Authority
Contents
Introduction
- About us
- Our role
- Our strategy: we make it easy to do research people can trust
- How we will make change happen
Our plans for 2024-25
- Include: Health and social care research is done with and for everyone
- Accelerate: Research findings improve care faster because the UK is the easiest place in the world to do research that people can trust
- Digital: Use digital technology well to do our work
- Improve: Always look for ways to do things better
Financial plan
- Financial plan 2024-2025
HRA 2024-25 business plan – Introduction
Our vision is for high quality health and social care research today, that improves everyone’s health and wellbeing tomorrow.
We help realise this by making it easy to do research that people can trust. Established in 2011, we have transformed UK research regulation and governance by simplifying processes, removing duplication, and reducing timelines. We have better supported the research community by putting people first.
About us
The Health Research Authority (HRA) is an independent arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). We have more than 260 staff in England who work at home and in our offices in Bristol, London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Nottingham. Our staff are supported by a community of 900 people who volunteer their time generously to help us deliver our services, alongside NHS staff and members of the public who advise us on our work.
The HRA is led by a Board, Chaired by Professor Sir Terence Stephenson which includes our Chief Executive, Matt Westmore, two executive directors and up to four non-executive directors. Two further directors also attend. The Board has strategic oversight, agreeing high-level policy and ensuring that the HRA is run effectively and efficiently. Find out more about our leadership.
We are one of many organisations that work together in the UK to regulate different aspects of health and social care research. Most of our services apply to research undertaken in England, but we also work closely with the other countries in the UK to provide a UK-wide system.
Our role
The HRA is a connecter and enabler in the health and social care research system. To make it easy to do research that people can trust, we:
- work with people to understand what you want research to look like and act on this so that you can trust research
- make sure that people taking part in research are treated ethically and fairly, by reviewing and approving health and social care research studies that involve people, their tissue or their data
- work with other organisations across the UK to make sure that, research studies can be set up smoothly and are always subject to the same scrutiny before they start
- work with others to coordinate and standardise the way research is set up and managed
- encourage and support transparency about research, so that you can find out what research is taking place, and what it found
- are one of the gatekeepers of patient data, making sure that your information is protected if it is used for research
- put in place and support the digital platforms to help the set-up and management of research in the UK
You can find out more about our work and what we do on this website, in our monthly newsletter HRA Latest, and via social media.
Our strategy: we make it easy to do research that people can trust
This is our third year of delivering our strategy which puts earning and maintaining trust in research by ensuring that it is safe and ethical at its centre. We strive to make it simple and fast to deliver research that people can trust.
To do this, we are committed to working with our HRA community of volunteers and public contributors, the public, and the research community, to achieve our strategic aims and we are grateful for all their hard work and commitment.
It is important to us that we include and involve as many and as diverse a range of voices and experiences in developing and implementing our strategy. This ensures that we can think in different ways, reflect different views and needs from across all communities that we serve, and embed that thinking in our plans and approach.
More information about our strategy can be found at Our Strategy - Health Research Authority (hra.nhs.uk).
We have also described how we will work to help us achieve our strategy. This includes our culture, making sure our people can do their best work and that our technology meets the needs of the people who use and benefit from our services.
Digital: Use digital technology well to do our work
We will design, create, and support simple to use, accessible systems that make it easier for researchers to do trusted research and for patients and the public to find out about that research.
Improving ourselves: always look for ways to do things better
Our people are key to our strategy. We will build a diverse and inclusive organisation giving our people the tools and support that they need.
How we will make change happen
There are three key aspects to our approach to change. We will be
- user-centred - with people at the heart of everything we do
- iterative and agile - trying new things and learning from them
- collaborative - working with others to make progress more quickly
We will split the year into three-monthly time periods, and coordinate our change work to provide predictability for people using our services, our stakeholders, and our staff. Where things will take more than three months, we will look for ways to break down the longer-term goal into smaller pieces of work to manage performance and to make sure there is effective governance of our work.
The UK is a world leader in biomedical and health research and development, with a vibrant research and innovation ecosystem. It is the only place in the world to offer a single online system to apply for the required approvals for health and social care research to go ahead from all relevant organisations. We, in collaboration with many partners, standardise and coordinate research approvals and governance across the UK. The HRA hosts and delivers the digital systems that make this happen including the Integrated Research Approvals System (IRAS).
Our vision for the future of IRAS is that we will connect the processes for health and social care research in the UK. We will help make the UK a great place to do research that people can trust. We will help people work together to plan, approve, set up, manage and complete research.
In 2024-25 we will begin to design and build replacement digital systems.
Our plans for 2024-25
Everything we do helps us to achieve our vision. Our strategy runs through our planning, performance, innovation and change, people and risk management processes. These processes make sure we successfully deliver on our priorities and that our people understand their role in achieving our strategy.
We are committed to delivering on government priorities as part of our strategy and business plan development. This includes Labour’s five missions to rebuild Britain, the Life Sciences Vision, The Government’s response to the commercial clinical trials review, Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery, Build Back Better: our plan for growth, and NHS Long-Term Plan.
2024-25 key results by strategic objectives
| Strategic objective | Key results |
| Include everyone in research |
In support of our strategic objective to push to increase diversity and inclusion in research we will publish guidance with MHRA which sets clear expectations for the diversity and inclusion of people taking part in research. In support of our strategic objective to increase public involvement in research we will publish guidance on public involvement in clinical trials, including guidance focused on healthy volunteer trials. In support of our strategic objective to make transparency the norm for research so that patients, service users, carers, researchers and policy-makers can see what research is underway and us its findings, we will update clinical trials legislation to introduce a legal requirement to register and publish results of clinical trials of medicines, with guidance published to support this. |
| Ask you what you want research to look like and act on this |
Publish HRA performance data showing what we do and why it matters, in a way that everyone can access and understand. Publish a report into the barriers to people-centred research to inform work to put people first. Commission a public dialogue to better understand public views on how people should be treated if they lose capacity while taking part in longitudinal research. |
| Involve you in the HRA |
Our Community Committee meet quarterly and provide advice to HRA Board. HRA staff involve people appropriately and meaningfully in their work. More than 80% of people involved in the HRA’s work agreed that they had shaped and informed the work they had been involved in. (baseline: 82% of members of the public who has worked with the HRA agreed in 2024 that they had shaped and informed the work they had been involved in). Support five additional people who may not have engaged with the HRA before a month to observe Research Ethics Committees. |
| Save money and time so that you can focus on doing good research |
Put in place changes to how we work to better coordinate our ethics review and confidentiality advice services. Maintain 12 existing model agreements and publish new model agreements for sponsors with sites. |
| Create a new online system to help you make research happen |
Complete discovery work on two of our digital services. Build and test prototypes for two of our digital services and develop them for limited release. |
| Support new ways to do research |
Publish guidance to support more decentralised research models. Ensure HRA content on the Artificial Intelligence Digital Regulations Service (AIDRS) information platform is kept up to date and is visible to key stakeholders. |
| Design digital systems in a human-centred way |
Put in place a plan to continue to build resilience for our existing systems. System availability Standard IRAS & BGO applications > 95% New IRAS (Pega Cloud) >99% Put in place user acceptance testing incorporating end users. Successful testing of features and functionality in line with RSP milestones |
| Process automation and integration improves our work |
Standardise our incident logging and incident response by HRA technical support teams. Develop the plan (Sep 24) and implement the plan (Jan 25). Make sure our approach to cyber security meets industry standards. Moderate assurance gained from the independent review of our Data Security and Protection Toolkit preparedness. |
| Always learn, improve and innovate |
Improve by 10% our staff survey response to: ‘I have the learning and development I need to do my job effectively’. Positive response received: (2022 68%; 2023 58%; 2024 53%; benchmark 65%). Celebrate and make more transparent our improvement activities every three months. |
| Be a great place to work. |
Maintain our staff engagement score in our annual survey (2022 82%; 2023 76%; 2024 79%; benchmark 67%) Improve by 10% the annual survey score for ‘I am satisfied with what Staff Voices (HRA staff forum) is achieving for staff and it is meeting my expectations’ (2022: 42%; 2023 44%; 2024 66%). Maintain or reduce the proportion of London-office based roles in line with our commitment to Places for Growth (2022: 17%; 2023: 9%; 2024: 8%). Measured every three months. |
| Commit to environmental sustainability and achieving net zero | Reduce our carbon usage and waste each year, where this is possible, measured every three months. |
2024-25 detailed business plan by strategic objectives
Include: Health and social care research is done with and for everyone
Include everyone in research
Meaningfully involving people in all stages of research and sharing its findings is crucial to earn people’s trust. It helps us do better research that can improve care.
What success will look like: More diverse groups of people with relevant lived experience are involved in all stages of research and are able to take part, with the findings shared publicly so that they can be used to improve care.
| Objective | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Push for change to increase diversity and inclusion in research | Write and publish guidance with MHRA which sets clear expectations for the diversity and inclusion of people taking part in research. | Publish an inclusion and diversity plan template and guidance | March 2025 |
| Support Research Ethics Committees (RECs) to consider the inclusion and diversity proposals submitted by applicants. | Hold sessions on the value of diversity and inclusion at our REC development days. | November 2024 | |
| Increase public involvement in research | Write and publish guidance on public involvement in clinical trials, including guidance focused on healthy volunteer trials. | Delivered in time to support implementation of the clinical trial regulations. | March 2025 |
| Work with the signatories of the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement in health and social care research to make change happen. | Increase the number of organisations joining the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement and taking actions to embed public involvement in health and social care research. | March 2025 | |
| Hold three monthly learning and sharing meetings for all the signatories to support change in culture and practice. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Improve the proportion of studies saying they have involved the public in the design of their research, based on sample analysis. | March 2025 | ||
| Make transparency the norm for research | Write and publish guidance to support transparency of clinical trials of medicines. | Delivered in time to support the implementation clinical trial regulations. | March 2025 |
| Develop ways to assess how well researchers are making their research public and act where they are not. | Publish data on the registration status of all clinical trials approved by a REC in 2023. | February 2025 | |
| Continue to develop and engage with stakeholders on the actions we will take when sponsors do not meet research transparency expectations. | March 2025 | ||
| Work with MHRA to ensure that new law for medical devices supports research transparency. | New medical devices regulations support research transparency. | March 2025 | |
| Improve awareness of transparency requirements and encourage compliance. | Make it public campaign focus on reaching 100% registration of UK clinical trials. | March 2025 | |
| Update the UK Policy Framework to reflect any changes to the law governing clinical trials of medicines. | Updated UK Policy Framework published. | March 2025 |
Ask you what you want research to look like and act on this
Research must address the issues that matter to you to earn your trust.
What success will look like: People taking part in research have a better experience because researchers know how to put them first and do things in a way that earns their trust. Over time, more people will feel confident and able to take part in research, helping us to improve care for everyone.
| Objective | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Champion issues that are important to people in research | Use the findings of our survey into public attitudes towards research to champion these issues and support our work to address them. | Identify opportunities to use this data to support our work including online content, presentations and engaging with stakeholders. | March 2025 |
| Build relationships with individuals, groups and communities we are not already working with and ask what matters to them to inform our work. | Hold two meetings with individuals, groups and communities that we are not already working with and use these findings to inform our work. | March 2025 | |
| Analyse our data to inform how we push for change, telling evidence-based stories to raise the profile of what we do and why it is important. | Publish an overview of trends in ethical issues considered by Research Ethics Committees (REC). | June 2024 | |
| Publish performance data in a way that everyone can access and understand. | June 2024 | ||
| Create public conversations about research issues that matter to people | Talk about what the HRA does and why it matters to more people. | Increase our presence at events run by key external stakeholders. | March 2025 |
| Support a public conversation about how people can trust the way that they will be treated if they lose capacity while taking part in a longitudinal research project. | Commission public dialogue to better understand public views on this issue to inform a way forward. | March 2025 | |
| Engage with a diverse group of stakeholders - including the public - to inform how to simplify the way that researchers seek and document informed consent in a way that people can trust. | Delivered in time to support the implementation of clinical trial regulations. | March 2025 | |
| Encourage researchers to do a better job of putting people first | Help improve the extent and quality of public involvement in health and social care research. | Increase the number of organisations joining the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement and taking actions to embed public involvement in health and social care research. | March 2025 |
| Promote the hallmarks of people-centred research and work in partnership to embed these throughout health and social care research. | Publish and promote the report from our people-centred clinical research project. | May 2024 | |
| Engage with partners to support and inform activity to address barriers and encourage researchers to put people first. | March 2025 |
Involve you in the HRA
Increase public involvement in how we make decisions.
What success will look like: We make better decisions, informed by a diverse group of people with relevant lived experience.
| Objective | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Increase public involvement in how we make decisions | Create more opportunities for people to be involved in our decision-making. | Embed new ways of working with the HRA’s newly formed Community Committee. | March 2025 |
| Support staff to meaningfully involve people in their work by providing tailored support and the right resources. | Publish a new handbook to support staff to do this meaningfully and well. | June 2024 | |
| Listen to and involve a diverse group of people in our work | Better understand the diversity of our Community to inform work to increase the diversity of the people that we work with. | Publish demographic information on the current HRA Community and use these findings to inform our work to increase diversity and inclusion. | June 2024 |
| Include a more diverse group of people in our regulatory decision-making committees – Research Ethics Committees (REC) and the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG). | Tailored recruitment campaigns for new REC and CAG members that seek to reach people that we do not already work with. | March 2025 | |
| Give more people the opportunity to see our community in action. | Support five additional people who may not have engaged with the HRA before a month to observe RECs and use their feedback to inform the ways that we work. | March 2025 | |
| Talk in a way that everyone can access and understand | Tell more stories about what we do and why it matters. | Hold a workshop with operational staff to support them to identify stories that we can tell and work with the communications team to tell them. | December 2024 |
| Make sure our communications’ channels and products work for the people we want to talk to. | Publish a monthly blog telling a story about what we do and why it matters. | From October 2024 | |
| Social media review performed. | October 2024 | ||
| Continue to develop the HRA’s voice. | Development and testing of refreshed HRA brand resources and training for our staff and community to use them. | March 2025 |
Accelerate: Research findings improve care faster because the UK is the easiest place in the world to do research that people can trust
Save money and time so that you can focus on doing good research
To earn people’s trust, research projects involving people, their tissue or their data need several approvals before they can go ahead.
What success will look like: It is easier for researchers to find out what they need to do and earn the approvals for their research to go ahead.
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Save money and time so that you can focus on doing good research | Continue to integrate our approvals processes to improve user experience. | Put in place changes to how we work to better coordinate our ethics review and confidentiality advice services. | March 2025 |
| Lead UK-wide development and maintenance of model agreements making it easier and cost effective to set up research. | Maintain 12 existing model agreements and publish new model agreements for sponsors with sites. | March 2025 | |
| Make sure UK-wide National Contract Review (NCVR) continues to accelerate contract process across the NHS. | Maintain 100% NHS Trusts in England accepting NCVR price for late phase studies. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Enable more proportionate delivery of clinical trials of medicines. | March 2025 | ||
| Reduce duplication in pharmacy and imaging services. | Agree a process with MHRA for notified trials. Write and publish guidance on simplified consent for low risk clinical trials, in time to support the implementation of the Clinical Trials Regulations. | March 2025 | |
| Accelerate the set-up of research in the NHS by describing an ideal pathway for set-up. | Work with the Experimental Cancer Medicines Centres to fully embed technical assurances into all clinical trials of medicines. | July 2024 | |
| Agree site set-up workflows with our partners. |
Create a new online system to help you make research happen
The approvals that each research project needs come from different organisations depending on the research. We aim to connect the steps that are part of doing research and make them easy to follow.
What success will look like: A new online system is helping researchers take the steps needed to make their research happen.
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Create a new online system to help you make research happen | Work with our partners to design, build and test digital services to connect different systems, creating a seamless research pathway across the UK. | Successfully implement scaled agile methodology in how we work. | April 2024 |
| Complete discovery work on two of our digital services. | June 2024 | ||
| Build and test prototypes for two of our digital services. | September 2024 | ||
| Develop prototypes into limited releases. | March 2025 | ||
| Explore how to effectively support researchers to navigate the end-to-end research journey, with guidance and through digital tools. | Design, test and publish guidance and digital tools: | ||
| - project initiation and procurement complete | November 2024 | ||
| - complete phase 1 implementation with a small number of users | March 2025 |
Support new ways to do research
We will make it possible to do new types of research here in the UK so that we can get better, quicker answers and put people first.
What success will look like: The UK is a destination to do new types of research that people can trust.
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Support new ways to do research | Work with others to enable more people-centred and decentralised research models | Publish guidance to support more decentralised research models. | March 2025 |
| Create and maintain links with stakeholders to understand their needs and through user-centred design harness opportunities for innovation and change. | Stakeholder engagement will be reported and monitored every three months. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Deliver services as part of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Regulations Service (AIDRS) whilst managing reduced funding for this service. | Ensure HRA content on the AIDRS information platform is kept up to date and is visible to key stakeholders. | March 2025 | |
| Seek to secure long-term sustainability of AIDRS, informing a decision over the HRA’s ongoing role in the service. | March 2025 |
Digital: Use digital technology well to do our work
We will design, create and support simple to use, accessible systems that make it easier for researchers to do trusted research and for patients and the public to find out about that research.
Design digital systems in a human-centred way
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Design digital systems in a human-centred way | Put in place a supplier contract management plan to support our legacy systems. | Track progress against plan. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
| Put in place agile diverse teams to enable our research systems transformation. | Define our digital target operating model. | September 2024 | |
| Put in place plans to implement our chosen model. | October 2024 | ||
| Make the most of our learning management system (LMS) following its successful implementation in 2024. | Increase in user numbers. |
September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Increase in user satisfaction. |
September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
Process automation and integration improves our work
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Process automation and integration improves our work | Develop and gain approval for a full business case to take forward our customer service management project. | Track progress against project plan. |
September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
| Automate and standardise incident processes, reducing manual processing and triaging requests. | Track progress action project plan. |
December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Put in place a robust assurance framework to set up our research systems transformation for success. | All 2023 Gate Review 0 recommendations achieved. | June 2024 | |
| 2024 Gate review 0 completed. | August 2024 | ||
| Moderate audit assurance opinion achieved for our Data Security and Protections Toolkit audit. | June 2024 | ||
| Test our incident response plan so that we know we can respond quickly and effectively if there is an incident. | Annual testing of critical research systems. | December 2024 |
Improve: always look for ways to do things better
Our people deliver our strategy. We will enable a diverse and inclusive organisation giving our people the tools and support that they need. We will:
Always learn, improve and innovate
| Focus | In 2024/25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
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Embed a learning culture where learning opportunities are meaningful and help us deliver our mission |
Complete our internal communications review – making sure that staff always have access to the information that they need and want and it is easy to find. |
New intranet in place. Improve by 10% our staff survey response to: ‘How effective do you think our intranet is’. |
September 2024 |
| Complete an organisation-wide skills analysis and training needs assessment. |
Skills analysis completed. RSP training needs assessment. Organisational training needs assessment. |
September 2024 October 2024 March 2025 |
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| Review and improve our approach to secondments. | Policy and procedures reviewed and implemented. | December 2024 | |
| Develop and put in place continuous professional development (CPD) programmes. | Three monthly releases from September 2024. |
September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Encourage and support people to develop new ideas improving how we work and get things done | Make sure we continue to grow a culture of innovation and change at pace to support our change portfolio including our research systems transformation. | Our approach to designing, managing, and delivering change and transformation defined. | September 2024 |
| Improve the way we buy and pay for goods and services to meet best practice. | Increase in payments made with a purchase order. |
September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
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| Design and implement improvements to our portfolio, programme and project management functions and processes to reflect best practice. |
Improvements defined. Improvements implemented. |
September 2024 March 2025 |
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| All ‘shall’ requirements | March 2025 | ||
| Review the functional standards and make sure we are meeting all ‘shall’ requirements and have a plan in place to make sure we fulfil our commitment to meeting all relevant requirements in a way which meets business needs. | Plan in place | March 2025 | |
| Use a variety of techniques to create, test and put in place improvements | Review and improve how our online Research Ethics Committee (REC) meetings are run. |
Review complete. Improvements implemented. |
December 2024 March 2025 |
| Continue to develop good practice standards and mechanisms for the ethical review of research applications. |
Review pilot results. Improvements implemented. |
September 2024 December 2024 |
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| Improve how we manage our Approvals services’ documentation. |
Scoping complete. Improvements implemented. |
June 2024 March 2025 |
Be a great place to work
| Focus | In 2024-25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Deliver our people strategy where everyone is supported to be their best, is valued, and is proud to be part of the team | Improve our people planning so that we have the right skills, capabilities and experience to achieve our business priorities. | Develop succession planning framework. | December 2024 |
| Put in place an action learning project to accelerate race equality in recruitment. |
Action plan created. Action plan implemented. |
August 2024 December 2024 |
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| Improve Research Ethics Committee members’ experience. |
Identify and socialise improvements. Improvements Implemented. |
September 2024 March 2025 |
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| Involve our staff in the HRA and take action to support their well-being. | Review and improve our approach to supporting the mental health of our staff. | Review our mental health framework. | December 2024 |
| Effectively embed ways of working to support staff working with vulnerable patients, research participants and volunteers. | Policy and procedures developed and implemented. | October 2024 | |
| Be empowered by a deep understanding of our social mission; to make it easier to do research that people can trust. | Involve and engage with a diverse group of stakeholders and people who bring different experiences and perspectives to develop the HRA's next three-year strategy. | Create a new three-year HRA Strategy. | March 2025 |
| Support and embed principles of Respect at the HRA. | Respect video made an essential element of our new induction process. | October 2024 |
Commit to environmental sustainability and achieving net zero
In 2024-25 we will consolidate our environmentally sustainable practices into our daily business, making sustainability the norm.
This includes:
- identifying the potential environmental effects (positive and negative) on any proposed policy
- considering the environmental principles policy statement, and making sure these are embedded into our ways of working
| Focus | In 2024/25, we will | Milestone / activities | Month |
| Reduce our carbon usage and waste | Monitor and report on our carbon usage and waste and aim to maintain our business travel at 60% of pre-pandemic rates. | Business travel at 60% pre-pandemic rates. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
| Continue to limit our domestic flights to essential travel where other travel methods are not suitable. | Domestic flights reported every three months. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
|
| Maintain low levels of single-use plastics and paper purchases | Measurement every three months. |
June 2024 September 2024 December 2024 March 2025 |
|
| Support our people to make changes that reduce their carbon usage and waste | Consider sustainability impact in all new or changing activities and policies. | Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) procedure developed. | October 2024 |
| SIA procedure implemented. | December 2024 | ||
| Understand better our impact by considering our existing ways of working and how these can be improved to be more environmentally sustainable. | Complete an Environmental Sustainability audit of our policies and procedures and make recommendations to reduce our impact. | December 2024 | |
| Re-use and repair where possible to support a circular economy | Work with our suppliers to reduce our carbon usage and waste in our supply chain by agreeing an Environmental Sustainability Procurement Statement. | Agree Environmental Sustainability Procurement Statement. | December 2024 |
Financial plan
Our total funding anticipated for this year is £28.8M (2023-24: £25.2M). We receive most of this directly from the Department of Health and Social Care. In 2024-25 this funding, known as grant-in-aid (GIA), will be £21.8M (2023/24: £18.5M) to fund revenue activities, £5.5M (2023/24: £2.8M) to fund capital investment and £1.0M (2023/24: £3.2M) to fund non-cash revenue (for example, depreciation).
The rest of our revenue comes from two other sources:
- £0.1M from NHSE to fund regulatory work supporting data driven technologies (2023-24: £0.2M)
- £0.4M from the devolved administrations as part of cost sharing arrangements for ethics review and UK wide research governance (2023-24: £0.4M)
The HRA is committed to providing value to the public purse. We achieve this in two ways:
- streamlining the research set-up process, driving economies and efficiencies to the research sector
- achieving ‘more for less’ in our services and policy work, by continuously improving our processes, reducing duplication and using technology to add value and reduce costs.
We have planned for a balanced income and expenditure position for 2024-25 on our core services and activities. We have achieved this by putting place a £1M efficiency and savings plan to manage inflationary pressures and enable increased investment in our research systems programme. The financial plan table sets out our sources of revenue funds for 2024-25. It also shows how these compare with our 2023-24 financial plan.
Capital funding
Our plans suggest a capital funding requirement of £5.5M (2023-24: £2.8M). This funding supports our essential research systems programme as well as core infrastructure (estates and technology). Capital funding has been confirmed by DHSC. The following table shows how capital funding will be invested.
| 2024/25 (£000) | 2023/24 (£000) | |
| Research systems transformation programme | 5,400 | 2,640 |
| HRA infrastructure (estates and technology) | 100 | 160 |
| Total capital expenditure | 5,500 | 2,800 |
Research systems programme
Our research systems programme gained approval from DHSC Investment Committee in 2023. Estimated funding and activity related to this programme are included within this business plan for 2024-25 based on our most up to date programme roadmap and include additional costs associated with recommendations made by an independent assurance review (Gate Review 0). The programme is funded by increased grant-in-aid funding from DHSC as well an efficiency and savings plan to release resources from our existing funding.
Financial plan 2024-2025
| 2024-2025 Pay £000 | 2024-2025 Non-pay £000 | 2024-2025 Total £000 | 2024-2025 Pay £000 | 2024-2025 Non-pay £000 | 2024-2025 Total £000 | |
| Regulatory services | ||||||
| Integrated approval service | 6,377 | 423 | 6,800 | 6,720 | 398 | 7,118 |
| Confidentiality advice service | 192 | 41 | 269 | 269 | 42 | 311 |
| Guidance and learning | 331 | 149 | 480 | 418 | 146 | 564 |
| Quality assurance | 136 | 13 | 149 | 128 | 10 | 137 |
| Approvals support | 543 | 371 | 914 | 569 | 360 | 929 |
| Innovation and improvement | 734 | 33 | 767 | 578 | 30 | 608 |
| 8,314 | 1,030 | 9,344 | 8,681 | 985 | 9,666 | |
| Strategy, governance, and policy | ||||||
| Corporate governance and chief executive | 811 | 58 | 869 | 748 | 68 | 816 |
| Policy and engagement | 880 | 148 | 1,029 | 836 | 91 | 928 |
| Communications | 292 | 67 | 359 | 290 | 129 | 420 |
| Public involvement | 190 | 29 | 219 | 217 | 33 | 250 |
| Artificial intelligence and data services | 97 | 4 | 101 | 178 | 0 | 178 |
| Strategic activities | 0 | 45 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2,270 | 352 | 2,622 | 2,269 | 322 | 2,591 | |
| Digital | ||||||
| Research systems | 3,052 | 3,834 | 6,886 | 2,056 | 3,562 | 5,618 |
| Infrastructure | 167 | 304 | 471 | 152 | 303 | 455 |
| 3,217 | 4,138 | 7,357 | 2,208 | 3,865 | 6,073 | |
| Corporate functions | ||||||
| Corporate portfolio office | 361 | 20 | 381 | 309 | 1 | 310 |
| People, diversity, inclusion and learning | 548 | 230 | 778 | 608 | 368 | 976 |
| Finance, commercial & estates | 742 | 375 | 1,159 | 774 | 342 | 1,115 |
| 1,651 | 625 | 2,319 | 1,691 | 710 | 2,401 | |
| Total before depreciation and efficiency | 15,454 | 6,145 | 21,641 | 14,849 | 5,882 | 20,730 |
| Unallocated inflationary pressures | 0 | 0 | 0 | (742) | (854) | (1,596) |
| Business change costs | 0 | 613 | 613 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total (before depreciation) | 15,454 | 6,758 | 22,254 | 14,106 | 5,028 | 19,134 |
| Depreciation | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0 | 3,235 | 3,235 |
| Total (after depreciation) | 15,454 | 7,758 | 23,254 | 14,106 | 8,263 | 22,369 |
| Funded by | 2024-2025 | 2023-2024 |
| DHSC grant in aid | 21,761 | 18,517 |
| NHS AI Lab | 97 | 221 |
| Non-cash revenue (depreciation funding) | 1,000 | 3,235 |
| Other income (unconfirmed) | 396 | 396 |
| Total | 23,254 | 22,369 |