Guardian Clinical Research Partner Zone launched

The NIHR CRN Clinical Research Partner Zone on the Guardian online is now live.

This new initiative forms part of our NHS engagement campaign. Its purpose is to promote awareness of research as well as providing a platform to discuss and explore the benefits of research. Over the next 12 months we’ll be working with the Guardian Online team to commission new articles, add more collateral, and conduct live Q&A sessions.

One of the key features of the Partner Zone is the Trust League Table which shows the national picture of Network-supported research activity across all NHS Trusts in England. Taken from the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio, this data reveals which Trusts are leading the way in providing opportunities for patients to take part in clinical research.

Making this information available is in line with the Government’s transparency agenda. Commenting on the league table results, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health, said:

“Clinical research is not just for the large teaching hospitals - it is absolutely core business for all NHS Trusts. A recent MORI poll showed that seventy two per cent of people would want to be offered the chance to take part in a clinical trial if they had a health condition that was affecting their daily life. Data from the NIHR Clinical Research Network shows us that high quality research is happening, but we could be doing more. We need all Trusts to look at how they can increase the opportunities for patients to take part in research."

Other key features of the site include:

• Trust research activity heat maps
• Topical editorial articles
• Recent news items generated by the Clinical Research Network
• A multi media centre where you can access related video and audio
• A ‘News from the Network’ library