Who Funds Trials?

In order to run a clinical trial we need money to pay for staff time, resources and the treatments or interventions we want to investigate.

There are a number of different organisations who will help to fund clinical trials. When a clinical trial is being designed, the team designing the clinical trial apply for funding and give reasons as to why the trial is important. Some trials may receive funding from a number of different sources.

Some of the sources that the clinical trial team may apply to are:

• Government funding e.g. the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
• Health and Social Care Organisations – who aim to improve the healthcare and support provided to patients in the future
• Charities – who are interested in the specific disease or condition that the clinical trial is looking into. For example Cancer Research UK (CRUK) or Myeloma UK
• Pharmaceutical companies – who make the treatment that the clinical trial wants to use. For example, Bristol-Myers Squibb or Takeda.

Clinical trials units can also receive money to improve how they do things on a day-to-day basis. This is known as infrastructure funding. This might be from charities or professional associations.