MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Clinical Trial Innovation in partnership with NIHR

The opportunities to improve health and the complexity of healthcare interventions have expanded beyond recognition over recent decades. For example, rapid scientific advances are increasing the number of potential new interventions and treatment pathways, leading to more questions about which new treatments are most effective, at what dose, duration, combination and sequence.
It takes too long to translate new discoveries into routine practice to improve health. This is true at every phase of research. Existing clinical trial designs generate high-quality scientific evidence, but are too slow, too expensive and insufficiently agile for the proliferation of pressing complex questions. We need more efficient clinical trial designs to answer complex research questions and deliver effective treatments to patients more quickly.
STRIDES will provide an international Centre of Research Excellence for methodological innovation in trial design, creating and empowering partnerships to implement these designs. Our innovative ‘STRIDE' trial designs will address complex questions and adapt as new evidence emerges. Our work will establish the integrity, efficiency and acceptability of these novel designs. Then, through exemplar trials and comprehensive training, STRIDES will partner with the international research community, empowering clinicians, patients, clinical trials units and industry to adopt these designs. This will transform the trials landscape, speeding progress in multiple disease areas.
Partnerships with industry, and key MRC investments in the Dementia Research Institute and Health Data Research UK, will be integrated into the STRIDES collaborative structure and will enhance impact by stimulating use of our design innovations.
STRIDES’ training and capacity-building initiatives will address the shortage of statisticians, clinicians and operational staff with the skills to design and run next-generation trials and transform our approach to evaluating new...