The Research and Development Office is a directorate of the Northern Ireland Health and Social Services Central Services Agency and was established to promote, co-ordinate and support R&D within the NIHPSS. Its remit encompasses the research needs of the DHSS&PS and all sectors of Health and Social Care within Northern Ireland.

The implementation of the strategy is supported by the R&D Strategic Advisory Group.

The R&D Office has a dual strategic role and operational role. At a strategic level the Office provides an overall strategic direction for Health and Personal Social Services (HPSS) R&D and liases with national statutory bodies and health-related organisations including the Department of Health. At an operational level the R&D Office supports a wide range of R&D initiatives from education and training to direct commissioning.

Sponsors of research and host instituitions need to have appropriate agreements in place before a piece of research can start. Information relating to the following four agreements have been published on this site:
Revised model Clinical Trial Agreement (mCTA)
Contact Research Organisation Model Clinical Trial Agreement (CRO mCTA)
Model Clinical Investigation Agreement (mCIA)
Model agreement for non-commercial research in the Health Service

The Spring 2008 issue of R&D Today has been published. Please click here to view Issue 10 of the Newsletter.