Research & Clinical Trials

Clinical trial setup performance and research activity across the Shelford Group

The 150-day target: The government's Life Sciences Sector Plan commits to reducing clinical trial setup time to under 150 days by March 2026 — from regulatory submission to first participant recruited. The 150-day clock comprises three stages: MHRA/HRA approval (target: 60 days), site opening after approval (target: 60 days), and first participant recruited after site opening (target: 30 days). The data below relates to the site-level component: whether studies recruited their first participant within 90 days of HRA approval. This is a key NIHR Research Delivery Network performance metric, with funding implications for trusts.

Site Set-Up Performance — UKCRD Monthly Tracking

Primary tracking series for this page. Sourced directly from the UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme's Trust Level Set-Up Report (ukcrd.org), drawing on the NIHR Research Delivery Network's Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS). Tracks commercial interventional studies recruiting their first participant within 90 days of HRA approval or site selection, excluding extension, rare disease and low-recruiting studies. Republished monthly on a rolling 6-month window. The Shelford aggregate below adds up the studies across all 10 trusts and works out what share hit each milestone — not an average of the ten trusts' separate percentages, which would count a 3-study trust the same as a 25-study trust. UKCRD only publishes rounded percentages per trust, not the underlying study counts, so we back-calculated each trust's count from its percentage and total studies before adding them up.

Source: UKCRD Trust Level Set-Up Report, ukcrd.org (NIHR RDN CPMS data). Four consecutive monthly snapshots — report dates 03 Jun, 03 Jul, 04 Aug and 03 Sep 2026, each a rolling 6-month window. An earlier snapshot (30 Apr 2026, cut 25 Apr 2026, window since 07 Apr 2025) used the pre-format-change methodology and is shown separately below as a baseline, not part of the trend. No May 2026 snapshot exists on the archive — the site jumps from the 25 Apr cut straight to the 01 Jun cut.

Why the 60-day and 30-day rates can be higher than the 90-day rate: the 90-day figure measures the full elapsed time from approval to first participant. The 60-day and 30-day figures each measure only one segment of that journey (approval → site confirmed; and site ready → first participant) and explicitly exclude the stage in between (site confirmed → site ready, e.g. contracting), which UKCRD treats as outside the site's control but which still counts toward the 90-day clock. A study can clear both segment milestones and still miss the overall 90-day target if enough time is lost in that excluded middle stage — so the three percentages aren't nested and shouldn't be expected to move together.

% Studies Completing Set-Up Within 90 Days — Shelford Aggregate vs Trusts

Bold teal line: Shelford weighted aggregate. Thinner lines: individual trusts — click a name in the legend to isolate it. Hover a point for the study count (n) behind each percentage; several trusts have small monthly samples, so month-to-month swings can reflect a handful of studies rather than a genuine shift in performance.

Trust-level detail by month

Note: the 60-day and 30-day columns cover different, non-adjacent segments of the process and exclude the site-confirmed-to-ready stage in between — a trust can score well on both and still score lower on the 90-day column overall (see note above cards).

Trust Studies (n) % within 90 days Median days (set-up) % opening within 60 days % recruiting within 30 days of opening

Baseline reference — 30 April 2026 (different window, not part of trend)

Report date 30 April 2026, data cut 25 April 2026. Window: since 07 April 2025 (13-month cumulative, pre-format-change methodology).

Trust Studies (n) % within 90 days Median days (set-up) % opening within 60 days % recruiting within 30 days of opening

An NIHR Open Data Platform series (12 months to Feb 2026) previously tracked trial set-up performance on this page using a broader, differently-defined dataset; it has been retired in favour of the more current, tightly-specified UKCRD monthly series above.

Future Additions

Planned data for future updates

This page will be expanded as additional research performance data becomes available. Potential additions include: