We're embedded in the NHS — not renting access to it.
The single biggest reason studies run faster and cheaper with Clinical Research Solutions is our relationship with the sites that actually deliver them. Our team have worked inside the NHS delivering research for years — across both primary and secondary care — so we don't have to build site relationships from scratch for every study.
The Primary Care Research Alliance (PCRA)
PCRA is a GP-led primary care research network that our team is directly embedded in — not a third party we merely hold a contract with. Our CEO Liz Hawes is Research Chair of PCRA and our medical director Dr Daphne Hazell is its lead GP, so this is our own network. It's the UK's largest GP-led research network, and our route into NHS primary care.
For a sponsor, that means faster site identification, faster site and ethical approvals, and studies that run inside routine care pathways instead of needing new infrastructure built from scratch.
Hospital & specialist site relationships
Our secondary care relationships come from our CEO Liz Hawes' clinical career as a research nurse inside the NHS. Those connections let us open hospital sites, brief surgical and research teams, and run complex device studies in acute settings.
It's how we run surgical and acute-setting device studies — coordinating sponsors, surgical and research teams, and independent research staff inside tightly regulated NHS hospitals.
“Clinical Research Solutions has been an exceptional partner in supporting our MHRA-regulated trials within Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. Their team's professionalism, responsiveness, and in-depth knowledge of clinical trial governance have been invaluable at every stage — from protocol development and regulatory submissions to site management and data integrity.”
This is the mechanism behind our speed and cost claims.
When sites already know us and studies fit inside routine care, set-up time collapses. That's how we get from protocol to first patient in as little as 2–8 weeks — not by cutting corners, but by removing the site set-up lag that slows most trials down.
"Clinical Research Solutions has earned genuinely strong relationships with our research sites. Because CRS understand clinical research delivery as well as being an excellent CRO, they mobilise practices quickly, brief investigators properly, and protect data quality at every site. It's the kind of site engagement the Alliance exists to enable — and it's why sponsors see NHS studies move at a pace they rarely expect."
