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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. Some clinical 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 like the CTRU 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. The CTRU receives infrastructure funding from Myeloma UK, the Royal College of Surgeons, CRUK and the NIHR.