About Us

The NIHR Sheffield Clinical Research Facility (CRF) operates from both the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (RHH) and the Northern General Hospital (NGH) sites. It is funded in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) and the University of Sheffield (UoS) and 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 5100 patients and have worked on more than 1500 clinical trials.


We offer expertise in multiple key specialities including Neurosciences, Infection and Immunity, Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Specialised Medicine. 

photos of images of rooms and equipment in CRF

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.

overview of rooms available in the CRF at both sites