Submission from the Office for Strategic
Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR)
INTRODUCTION
1. This memorandum provides background on
the establishment, operation and progress of the OSCHR. This memorandum
was prepared by the OSCHR Office with input from the Department
for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department
of Health (DH).
2. The memorandum is designed to augment the
OSCHR Chairman's First Progress Report, which was published in
November 2008 and is attached at Annex 1.[1]
BACKGROUND TO
THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF OSCHR
3. On 31 March 2006, the then Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, appointed Sir David Cooksey to
lead a review to build agreement on the best institutional arrangements
for a new single fund for health research announced in the budget.
The Report of the review, "A Review of UK Health Research
Funding", was published in December 2006.
4. The review concluded that, although good progress
had been made in some areas, further work was needed to ensure
that publicly funded health research was carried out in the most
effective and efficient way, and to facilitate rapid translation
of research findings into health and economic benefits. The Report
recommended specific actions for the Government to take to achieve
this. In his Pre-Budget Report on 6 December 2006, the Chancellor
announced that he and the Secretaries of State for Health and
for Trade and Industry (now Innovation, Universities and Skills)
welcomed the report and would take forward its recommendations.
5. The Review recommended the establish
a new Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR)
that would take an overview of budgetary division and research
strategies of both the MRC and NIHR.
6. OSCHR was set up in January 2007 following
the blueprint laid out in Sir David Cooksey's review, in order
to develop a more coherent strategic approach to health research
in England. During 2008, this role was extended to all three of
the Devolved Administrations. This change reflects the collaborative,
multi-disciplinary, multi-centre nature of much health research,
and the need to maximise UK competitiveness in a global health
research environment.
ROLES AND
RELATIONSHIPS
The OSCHR Office
7. As recommended by the Cooksey Review,
OSCHR was created as a jointly-staffed and funded office of the
Department of Health and the Office of Science and Innovation
(OSI) (now DIUS). OSCHR is headed by a non-executive Chair who
is appointed by, and reports to, the Secretaries of State for
Health and for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Professor
Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University
and President of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), was appointed
as the first Chair of OSCHR.
8. The work of OSCHR is overseen by the OSCHR
Board, which first met in January 2007. Terms of Reference and
membership are given at Annex 2. The Board has three non-executive
members recruited through the Appointments Commission in accordance
with the procedures set by the Office of the Commissioner for
Public Appointments and appointed by Ministers. Initially there
was representation on the Board from DIUS, DH England, MRC and
NIHR, with a single representative for the Devolved Administrations.
Following discussions with the Scottish Government, the Welsh
Assembly Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive, Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland agreed to become full Partners in OSCHR
in 2008 and now have full representation on the OSCHR Board. The
research funders, MRC, NIHR (for England), CSO (for Scotland)
and WORD (for Wales), and the R&D Office of the HSSCSA (for
Northern Ireland) are now referred to as "The OSCHR Partners".
The OSCHR Office
9. The Office is administered by DH England under
an agreement between DH and DIUS, and is funded jointly by DH
and DIUS.
10. The key messages emerging from the Cooksey
Review were that there was the need to:
— ensure a more strategically coherent
approach to publicly-funded health research;
— create a step-change improvement in the
translation of basic research into health and economic benefits;
and
— encourage a stronger partnership with
the health industries and charities.
The Roles of the OSCHR Partners
11. The OSCHR Partners are responding to
these challenges by developing a shared Vision for UK Health Research.
The Partners are working together to realise this Vision through
the development of an integrated plan to deliver the Vision supported
by five key areas of work: translational research, public health
research, E-health records research, research methodology and
human capital.
12. All the OSCHR Partners remain the direct
funders of research with their own budgets and lines of accountability.
Each has, and continues to develop, its own strategy. The major
difference since the Cooksey Review is that, under the oversight
of the OSCHR Board(s), the OSCHR Partners are now coordinating
their strategies to deliver the shared Vision for UK Health Research.
The Role of the OSCHR Board and OSCHR Office
13. The role of the OSCHR Board and OSCHR
Office is a) to forge agreement between the OSCHR Partners on
the UK Health Research Vision and their integrated plan to deliver
the Vision, and b) to monitor the coordination and implementation
of the OSCHR Partners' delivery of the Vision.
14. Since the establishment of OSCHR in 2007,
the OSCHR Partners have worked to coordinate their strategies
in specific areas such as translational medicine, and have then
brought these to the OSCHR Board for discussion and agreement.
15. OSCHR has the additional role of submitting
a single funding bid to the Treasury covering the activities of
the MRC (UK-wide) and the NIHR in England, and the allocation
to the MRC and the NIHR rising to over £1.7 billion per annum
by 2011 of Government funding needed to deliver the Vision.
16. The OSCHR Partners fund research that
covers a very broad spectrum of activity. In order to help OSCHR
fulfil its facilitation and monitoring roles three Boards—a
Translational Medicine Board (TMB), an E-Health Records Research
Board (EHRRB) and a Public Health Research Board (PHRB)—have
been established to provide strategic oversight in these areas.
17. The roles of these Boards echo that
of the main OSCHR Board in that they advise and monitor the coordination
and implementation of the OSCHR Partners' delivery of the Vision
according to their Terms of Reference. The Chairmen of the Boards
attend OSCHR Board meetings and report on progress to OSCHR Board
members. The three Boards were established at different times
and are at different stages of development.
PROGRESS TO
DATE
18. Full details of progress between January
2007—November 2008 are summarised in OSCHR's first progress
report which was published on 18 November (Annex 1).
19. The purpose of the OSCHR progress report
was to highlight the main elements of the combined approach that
has been put in place by the National Institute for Health Research
(NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) since the Cooksey
review. This period has seen an unprecedented commitment to health
research in terms of funding, infrastructure, research programmes
and the volume of health research commissioned.
20. There is a much closer working relationship
between the OSCHR Partners, the major public funders of
health research. Together, as part of a coordinated approach,
they are now investing much more into research aimed at translating
basic science ideas into new products and approaches to the treatment
of disease and illness.
21. During 2007-08 the MRC and NIHR have,
under the oversight of the OSCHR Translational Medicine Board,
chaired by Prof Sir Alex Markham, jointly developed an ambitious
new approach to translational medicine research.
22. Coordinated strategies have been created
that are designed to increase translational research activity
and capacity.
— A system has been created which is designed
to swiftly identify the latest advances in basic science, develop
their potential into promising interventions, and evaluate effectiveness,
value for money and broader impact for use in the NHS.
— By working closely together, a coherent
approach to public funding of translational medicine research
has been developed by the MRC and NIHR that that provide opportunities
for those choosing to move basic medical research discoveries
towards commercialisation and clinical use.
— For the first time, the "development
gaps" where support was not consistently available have been
addressed.
23. In the area of electronic records
research, the OSCHR's E-Health Records Research Board, chaired
by Prof Ian Diamond, has been working to facilitate coordination
of funders' strategies in the area of E-health records research
in order to maximise preparedness of the research community for
exploitation of the CfH Research Capability Programme. A Strategic
Framework for Health Informatics in Support of Research has been
agreed to aid coordination of UK funders' strategies (including:
maximising current investment, funding of infrastructure &
novel research, training of human capital etc.) and a Strategic
Coordination Group bringing together the major funders from the
Government and charity sectors has been established.
24. It is envisaged that the Research Capability
Programme and equivalents in Scotland and Wales will enable faster
and easier access to health-related data sets. This will lead
to increased numbers of research applications linking health data
with population based research data including biological (genomic),
trials, epidemiological and social science data.
25. Progress in methodology. The
MRC and NIHR share a vision that the UK should lead the world
in the development of pioneering research methodologies. A programme
of research now supports this aim. It is hoped that research in
universities and the NHS will benefit from new and improved ways
of designing and conducting clinical research, and translation
into patient benefit will be supported by better tools to inform
regulatory and adoption decisions, and to support industry R&D
needs.
26. Progress in public health research.
A Public Health research Board chaired by Professor Ray Fitzpatrick
was established in December 2008.
27. One of the key recommendations from
the 2006 Review of UK health research funding by Sir David Cooksey
was to establish "... an agreed and understood set of
health research priorities for the UK that target the biggest
and most important health challenges for the UK over the coming
decade." During 2008, OSCHR coordinated a multi-stage
project with the overall objective of identifying and prioritising
"UK health research opportunities" over the next decade.
28. Extensive debate and discussion lead
by the MRC identified that the key opportunities for maximum impact
in health research over the coming years would be the application
of a new and developing research approaches across a range of
diseases and disorders. The Health Research Opportunities were
published on the MRC website in Febuary 2009.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
IDENTIFIED IN
THE CHAIRMAN'S
PROGRESS REPORT
29. In his foreword to the 2008 Progress
Report the Chairman of OSCHR, Professor Sir John Bell highlighted
the progress that had been made in addressing the Cooksey agenda
and identified future challenges:
— Public health research.
— Governance of E-health Records Research.
30. These challenges are well recognised
by the OSCHR Partners and further progress has been made since
the Progress Report was published. This is summarised below.
31. There is agreement of the need for better
communication of the combined funding landscape particularly
for industry. A co-ordinated Communication Strategy is being developed
by the OSCHR Partners.
32. Developing public health research
is an OSCHR priority for 2009. The new Public Health Research
Board has met and is currently engaged in mapping the public health
research landscape. It will monitor the coordination and implementation
of the OSCHR Partners' coordinated approach. Meanwhile, the MRC
and NIHR have each taken a strategic coordination lead in two
major areas of public health need with the MRC leading on Ageing
and on Addiction & Mental Health, and the NIHR leading on
Obesity and on Infection.
33. The OSCHR Partners have built further
on their ongoing interactions with industry. Recent developments
include the establishment of the MRC Industry Forum and the start
of a collaboration between, industry, MRC, TSB and NIHR on stratified
medicine announced in the recent Government response to Sir David
Cooksey's Review and Refresh of Bioscience 2015 Report.
The new (Government) Office for Life Sciences under the oversight
of Lord Drayson is also concerned with this agenda. OSCHR and
the OSCHR Partners are contributing fully to ongoing discussions.
34. Capacity building and training
is an OSCHR priority for 2009. Work by the OSCHR Partners to develop
a UK-wide Strategic Framework for Human Capital for Health Research
is well advanced and will be discussed at the OSCHR Board in May.
35. Significant progress is being made in
establishing the Health Research Support Service (HRSS) and equivalents
in the Devolved Administrations and through the development of
the Strategic Framework for Health Informatics in Support of Research.
However, the OSCHR Progress Report highlighted the importance
of agreeing appropriate governance arrangements that satisfy
the public's and professionals' expectations and concerns with
data security and patient confidentiality.
36. This issue is being tackled through
a series of mechanisms that are designed to protect patient identifiable
information, whilst enabling research to reach its potential in
the UK. In England, a key development is the establishment of
the Information Governance Services, to enable research using
patient records within a risk based framework of controls. This
work is being developed with the advice of the independent National
Information Governance Board (NIGB).
37. The Progress Report highlighted the
progress made through the NIHR but noted that the commitment to
embrace research and innovation is still lacking in many NHS Trusts.
Since then there have been a number of developments—the
NHS Constitution was published in January 2009 after the publication
of the Progress Report and makes clear that research is a core
part of the NHS in that it enables the NHS to improve the current
and future health of the people it serves. In addition the NHS
Operating Framework 2009-10 states that providers of NHS care
will need to increase their participation in research. The national
ambition is to double the number of patients taking part in clinical
trials and other well-designed research studies within five years.
May 2009
Annex 2
OSCHR BOARD MEMBERSHIP
AND TERMS
OF REFERENCE
OSCHR Board and key functions
OSCHR's mission is to facilitate more efficient
translation of health research into health and economic benefits
in the UK through better coordination of health research and more
coherent funding arrangements to support translation.
The key functions of OSCHR are to:
— monitor delivery of the strategy against
objectives and report to Parliament on progress; and
— encourage a stronger partnership between
Government, health industries and charities.
OSCHR's role is a) to forge agreement between
the OSCHR Partners on the UK Health Research Vision and their
integrated plan to deliver the Vision, and b) to monitor the coordination
and implementation of the OSCHR Partners' delivery of the Vision.
Membership of the OSCHR Board
— Professor Sir John Bell—Chair,
OSCHR— Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz—CEO, MRC
— Professor Dame Sally Davies—Director
General R&D, DH, England
— Dr Russell Hamilton—In lieu of
CEO, NIHR
— Dr Tony Jewell—CMO, Welsh Assembly
Government
— Sir Alan Langlands—CEO, HEFCE
— Professor Sir John Savill—Chief
Scientist, Scottish Government
— Professor Adrian Smith—Director
General of Science and Research, DIUS
— Sir Mark Walport—Director of The
Wellcome Trust (Non-Executive member)
— 2 non-executive members currently being
recruited
In attendance: Professor Sir Alex Markham (Chair
TMB), Professor Ian Diamond (Chair EHRRB), Professor Ray Fitzpatrick
(Chair PHRB), OSCHR Office lead officials.
1 Not printed, see www.nihr.ac.uk/files/pdfs/OSCHR_Progress_Report_18.11.08.pdf Back
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