About us
Our mission
Our mission is to provide a safe, friendly, specialist environment to deliver and promote excellent research for our patients and those who use our service.
Our vision
Our vision is to be recognised as the best provider and deliverer of clinical research in the UK.
Our aims
We aim to:
Increase the opportunities for patients to take part in research
Support the growth of high-quality experimental medicine clinical research in areas of clinical need
Further strengthen our strategic partnerships within our local clinical research infrastructure and with research funders
Develop expert staff who are PROUD to make a difference in clinical research
Embed and integrate clinical research into routine clinical care
Our impact
Have you taken part in a research study and would like to find out more about what happened after the study finished?
Do you want to find out more about the projects supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)?
You can find out more by clicking on the links below.
Our strategies
Over the next 4 years we will be working towards:
Supporting the growth of international quality experimental medicine (EM) in areas of clinical need aligned to existing and emerging research strength within our NHS/University partnerships.
Further improving the effectiveness of participant information and study delivery, with a particular focus upon increasing research participation from primary care, underrepresented groups and hard to reach populations with high burdens of disease.
Further developing a resilient and highly skilled workforce, particularly through expanding the breadth of delivery and academic research training opportunities across nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals (NMAHP) and early career medical staff, including clinical/research posts.
Further developing collaborations with industry, government and charitable research funders, locally through promoting and contributing to coordinated delivery through the UKCRF Network.
The NIHR Sheffield BRC & CRF Patient & Public Involvement & Engagement (PPIE) Strategy 2022 - 2027 can be found on our PPIE Strategy page.
The NIHR Sheffield BRC & CRF Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Strategy 2022 - 2027 can be found on our EDI Strategy page.
Why Sheffield?
The NIHR Sheffield Clinical Research Facility (CRF) is part of the NIHR and hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Sheffield.
The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth.
NIHR Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) are purpose-built facilities in NHS hospitals where researchers can conduct studies. The NIHR has awarded £161 million over 5 years to 28 CRF facilities across England, to support early-phase and complex studies. In 2022 the NIHR Sheffield CRF was awarded £7.9m in funding which will support the development and testing of new treatments for diseases, many of which currently have no cure. This funding award covers 2022- 2027.
The NIHR Sheffield CRF operates from both the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (RHH) and the Northern General Hospital (NGH) sites. It is open to researchers from all clinical disciplines, encouraging collaboration with researchers across our region as part of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Yorkshire & Humber.
Our facility is part of the UKCRF Network, which consists of around 54 Clinical Research Facilities across the UK and Ireland.
We offer purpose built, dedicated research facilities in a specialist environment for the conduct of high quality clinical research and have the capacity to care for participants on a day and overnight basis.
We have the range of expertise required to run complex early phase studies as well as large healthy volunteer and patient studies. We also provide outreach services for studies dependent on delivering research in their own clinical environment.
Our experienced team of specialist research nurses, support and administrative staff provide a tailored solution, ensuring competitive recruitment with timely and accurate data.
We recruit patients and healthy volunteers into clinical trials across lots of health conditions every day. We support all phases of clinical research, commercially sponsored or otherwise and work with every clinical directorate in the Trust.
Since we opened our doors to welcome the first research participant on 2 October 2006, we have recruited over 5,100 patients and have worked on more than 1,500 clinical trials.
We offer expertise in multiple key specialities including Neurosciences, Infection and Immunity, Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Specialised Medicine.
At the CRF we work hard to provide a welcoming environment for people who have chosen to participate in clinical research. Everyone who takes part in a research project which is supported by us can be assured that it has met all necessary legal and ethical requirements.
Without the valuable contributions made by patients and members of the public, advances in healthcare simply would not be possible. Participating in a clinical trial or being involved in the research process helps us all to live healthier lives.
