The University of Birmingham is one of the leading centres in the UK for clinical trials, having a wealth of experience across a wide range of diseases, clinical settings and trial designs. The Birmingham Centre for Clinical Trials (BCCT) brings together clinical trial expertise from across the University and, in particular, the three large, well-established, UKCRC fully-registered Clinical Trials Units.
The trials portfolio at the University of Birmingham is supported by a comprehensive expert infrastructure in trial methodology.
- The three Clinical Trials Units provide comprehensive, complementary expertise in trials in cancer and non-cancer, primary and secondary care settings and early and late phase.
- The University has a large body of expertise in medical statistics both within the Clinical Trials Units and other research groups and is a centre of excellence for trials methodology, hosting one of the seven MRC Hubs for Trials Methodology Research.
- The extensive and diverse portfolio of trials that has developed over many years is backed up by a wealth of expertise in research governance and Birmingham contributes to national initiatives on trial conduct.
- The trials portfolio at Birmingham benefits from the expertise in health economic evaluation provided by the Health Economics Unit.
- The NIHR Research Design Service for the West Midlands and the Birmingham Clinical Research Academy provides support for developing clinical trial research proposals.
The University of Birmingham has the scientific and translational expertise that underpins clinical trials together with the organisational infrastructure to ensure successful delivery of translational research. In particular, the University of Birmingham has established a Human Tissue Authority licensed human tissue bank, the Human Biomaterials Resource Centre (HBRC) dedicated to the collection and storage of appropriately consented, quality-assured biomaterials for distribution to biomedical research groups both in academia and industry.
The Birmingham Centre for Clinical Trials benefits from the extensive allied research activity that goes on within the University. Research programmes in epidemiology, diagnostic research and health economics all complement the trials portfolio. In addition, the University hosts national and regional facilities allied to clinical trials.