If a study may be eligible for receipt of support from the Clinical Research Network, it must be processed through NIHR CSP in order to be included in the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Portfolio.
If all the research costs and infrastructure costs for a study are provided by an NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) or NIHR Research Centre for Patient Safety & Service Quality in all study sites, the study can be processed through CSP but does not require support through the Clinical Research Network.
Accessing CSP
Submit your application to CSP through the
Integrated Research Application System (IRAS). In the
Project Filter make sure the answer to question 3a is
England.
If all the research costs and infrastructure costs for a study are provided by an NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Unit, NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) or NIHR Research Centre for Patient Safety & Service Quality in all study sites, you should answer Yes to question 5a and you can then proceed to complete the R&D application.
To make an application for the study to be considered for NIHR Clinical Research Network support and inclusion in the NIHR CRN Portfolio select No for question 5a and Yes to question 5b. The NIHR CRN Portfolio will create a CSP Application Form in the menu on the left of the IRAS screen which should be completed and submitted through IRAS by the Chief Investigator (CI) or Study Coordinator.
An initial response will be issued within two working days advising whether the study can continue through the CSP process.
If a study is potentially eligible for inclusion in the NIHR CRN Portfolio, the CI will be asked to complete and submit the R&D application through IRAS.
Once this has been validated, the CI will be requested to ask all PIs to complete and submit a SSI form for each NHS organisation in England that is taking part in the study.
These should be submitted through IRAS to the Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) of which the NHS organisation is a member.
- Receipt of the R&D application
will trigger the adoption review process by either the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network, the Primary Care Research Network or one of the six Topic-specific Clinical Research Networks. In parallel to this, the study-wide governance review will commence - Receipt of the Site Specific Information (SSI) forms means the local governance review can start for a particular site
Governance reports
Once eligibility for the NIHR CRN Portfolio has been confirmed and the NIHR CSP governance review has been completed successfully for a site a Letter of NHS Permission will be issued for that site. Research can start at that site when the Chief Investigator receives the permission letter.
