Table 2 The National Cancer Research Institute and Research Groups

The NCRI was established in 2001 as a partnership to drive collaboration between organisations that fund cancer research. Cancer Research UK is one of the NCRI Partners.

The NCRI aims to deliver better outcomes for all those affected by cancer throughout the UK and beyond. Bringing together the brightest scientific and medical minds to advance cancer research in the UK, they identify gaps in cancer research and address them, as well as looking out for unnecessary, expensive duplication of effort and guard against it [3].

The NCRI Research Groups bring together clinicians, scientists and patients, carers and family members, amongst many others to coordinate the development of a strategic portfolio of trials. They have been in existence for more than fifteen years and are a central part of the UK’s cancer research infrastructure. This includes considering new research questions, developing proposals for trials, securing funding and overseeing the portfolio of existing studies. These Research Groups are multi-disciplinary, and typically have 15–20 Scientific members and (at least) 2 consumer members to assist the group in understanding the perspectives of patients, carers and the public that are relevant to the work of the Research Group. The Research Groups liaise with funding bodies in order to secure funding for their trial portfolio as well as providing proposals guidance to improve the quality of cancer research, and especially clinical trials. They interact with the Clinical Trials Units and UK clinical research networks (including the devolved nations) to optimise delivery of trials as well as other site-specific and cross-cutting NCRI Groups as appropriate. NCRI Research Groups meet twice a year with meetings of subgroups or workstreams held in between. These groups also have NCRI Consumers sitting on them. The main Research Groups are supported by NCRI which provides strategical, managerial and organisational support [4].