Start-Up Seminar: Resources to Support the Early Phases of Research

The time needed to develop your research idea, engage partners including consumers, obtain ethics and governance approvals, and, if necessary, seek funding will vary.

For example, some research projects are quite simple in design, are considered ‘low risk’ in terms of ethics and governance approvals and can be conducted with already-available resources.  Other projects are larger scale, carry greater potential risks for participants or the study site, and need to be supported with external funding.  The former could be set up in a matter of months, the latter could take a year or two or even longer.

The time involved in establishing your research team, including consumer members, will also vary.  If you have established relationships with researchers and consumers, then engaging them in a new project might happen relatively quickly.  If you need to build new relationships, this will take time as you find people who are interested in your project and want to contribute.  Forming research collaborations is an investment over the longer term – not only for the current project, but also future projects.  This is true for researcher partners and consumer partners.

Being a participant in a research project often can spark that person’s interest in being more involved in research.  Depending on the nature of the study, it can also foster trust in the researcher and the research process.  If the first project is finished, you can reach out to a former participant about being involved in a new project as a potential partner.  This does not require approval by an Ethics Committee.

We understand that these requirements vary across individual organisations.  However, the regulatory guidelines for clinical trials state GCP training is required and should be renewed every 3 years.  The new National Clinical Trials Accreditation Framework, which applies to health organisations (but not universities), requires this credentialing so it is likely to become a more common standard.  SHP is supporting 24 people across our partnership to become GCP trainers (in April 2022), so access to the course should also be easier.

Unfortunately, SHP does not have this kind of resourcing.  However, some of our partners, and larger clinical trial units are testing these kinds of ‘shared’ positions.  It may be helpful to check with your local research support office.

The processes for involving consumers in health care and health research activities are managed at an organisational level.  It is best to check with your organisation about the specific local requirements.

There are many published papers about the barriers and facilitators to participant recruitment, including for clinical trials.  Sydney Health Partners will develop a summary as a future project.  Thanks for the suggestion!  We have also recently completed a Pilot Recruitment Project around the barriers to clinical trials, and will be adding a summary from that project on our website.