Lancashire Clinical Research Facility

Welcome to the Lancashire Clinical Research Facility. Our specialist clinical research facility is for patients and volunteers taking part in early-phase clinical trials.

The Lancashire Clinical Research Facility is a partnership between Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Lancaster University. Together the teams provide a unique combination of both physical and mental health research expertise.

Our aims

• Attract early phase research studies within Lancashire.  This will give people in Lancashire an opportunity to take part in research studies.
• Provide a high quality service for the conduct of clinical research.
• Providing on the doorstep research opportunities for patients and volunteers in Lancashire.

Find out more about NIHR Lancashire Clinical Research Facility on Lancashire Teaching Hospital's website.

The main Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust contacts within the National Institue of Health Research, Lancashire Clinical Research Facility are:

Dr Salman Karim, Associate Medical Director (LCRF)

Karen Palmer, Research Nurse Manager 

Publication of research performance 

The Trust is contractually bound to publish the results of clinical trials for a period of 12 months.  Each quarter we provide data to the NIHR to support their aims of monitoring value for money.  Although this has been a difficult year, and new trials were very few and far between from March 2020, we were able to restart 85% of trials that were suspended due to Covid-19 by March 2021.  We aim to do as much remote assessment and delivery as possible, and when we see patients, we do so in a safe way - to protect our patients, families and carers, and, of course, our staff.  

Our staff have worked in partnership with other Trusts to deliver COVID-19 trials, as well as a number of our own.  We were proud to be part of several trials mentioned in the news, particularly the RECOVERY and ISARIC studies.  We continue to work on Covid-19 research, with a new trial repurposing a listed drug with the aim of finding a treatment that reduces symptoms, and preventing hospitalisation which opened in December. 

View the details of our performance and delivery of clinical and commercial trials in the last 4 financial quarters on the NIHR website.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the publication requirements were put on hold, but these have now restarted and the results can be seen by accessing the link below.