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Our research facilities

The CRDC’s hub is the Brighton Clinical Research Facility (CRF). Here we host a diverse portfolio of clinical trials supported by a dedicated team including Doctors, Clinical Research Nurses, Research Practitioners, Data Officers and Research Administrators.

The CRF has outpatient facilities that can accommodate up to 40 research visits a day, and day patient suite suitable for infusions of novel treatments including chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies.

The unit has a dedicated laboratory that supports a range of pre-analytical processing procedures as well as storage and transfer of samples to external analytical laboratories for research purposes. The lab works with a broad range of biological samples, liaising with our local pathology, academic and central labs across the UK and all over the world.

UHSussex clinical research facilities for Sussex

Clinical trials pharmacy and dispensary

Our dedicated clinical trials pharmacy and dispensary has sole responsibility for the management, storage and dispensing Investigational Medicinal Products (IMPs).  The team are responsible for setting up and managing all IMPs. We also have a dedicated IMP aseptic unit that prepares novel drugs for administration. The pharmacy supports research across all our CRDC research hub sites. 

CRDC spoke sites

We have research hubs with clinic rooms, phlebotomy, and simple sample processing at our hospitals in Worthing, Chichester and Haywards Heath. Research nurse teams are based on each site to support study teams and conduct follow up visits and assessments were convenient.  

Our agile research delivery team can also set up satellite research clinics in community and primary care settings.

Study set up and oversight

Our hospitals sites fall under one research management system for research providing a one stop shop for trial set up and approval. The team are highly experienced in  

  • Conducting the main UK wide study resource review using the National Contract Review ICT costing template
  • Conducting local review using the ICT template
  • Review and localise contracts and model agreements
  • Developing activity trackers to capture research activity costs and inform invoicing.
  • Setting up contracts and SLAs with sites collaborating or providing services on studies.
  • Managing travel and inconvenience payments to research participants.

Participant facilities and experience

The CRDC provides an excellent service for research participants including comfortable waiting areas and refreshments, and clinics close to home, remote follow up. Our participants report high levels of satisfaction; we routinely use the NIHR Patient Research Experience Survey to seek feedback to improve our service.

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