Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BBRC) and Birmingham Clinical Research Facility (BCRF) played host to the first Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Clinical Research Facility (CRF) Inclusion Conference at “The Exchange” in Birmingham on 17 October.
The event provided BRC and CRF staff who work within the remit of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) an opportunity to discuss EDI Strategies that have been produced by BRCs and CRFs and submitted to the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The focus of the day was to learn about and share the challenges of collecting both workforce and research participant data.
During the event, presentations highlighted that while work is underway and progressing, a concerted effort across the NIHR infrastructure will be required to ensure BRCs and CRFs can fulfil the new NIHR requirements to embed inclusive research design in all stages of the research life-cycle from November 2024.
The key message from the event focused on the requirement for improved mechanisms in which to share good practice described during the presentations, thereby preventing the need for duplication of work and efforts across common areas such as questionnaire design. A request was made to NIHR to help solve the problem of how to effectively share data and information across the NIHR infrastructure, something that is not currently possible.
The Oxford Health BRC (OH BRC) and OH CRF were represented at the workshop. Clinical Research Facilitators at OH CRF, Rachel Delahay and Shun-yan-toto presented their initial analysis of attempts to encourage research participants to complete demographic questionnaires on arrival at their research appointment. Both the OH BRC and OH CRF teams presented posters.
There was enthusiasm for holding a similar event in one year to help gauge progress across the NIHR infrastructure.
Dr Pamela Reid, OH BRC Strategic Partnerships Manager said:
“EDI is a challenging area. The Conference highlighted that some BRCs/CRFs have made in-roads into addressing the complexities. This conference facilitated invaluable discussion with our BRC and CRF colleagues and we look forward to continuing to explore further ways to share knowledge and allow best practice to be adopted more widely.”
Rachel Delahay, Clinical Research Facilitator at Oxford Health Clinical Research Facility Said:
“I enjoyed linking in with other BRCs and CRFs and learning about different projects which aim to break down barriers in clinical research. It was good to hear new perspectives on EDI in research, and consider new ways of being inclusive in research delivery.”
OH BRC EDI Strategy Poster
