Overview
The Tees Valley Research Alliance (TVRA) is a strategic and operational alliance between the research and development departments from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Our aim is to provide a combined, streamlined, responsive research service to our local investigators and external research partners and to offer increased opportunities for our patients to participate in cutting edge research trials
Services we offer
- Specialist Chief Investigator, sponsor and governance support
- Efficient research trial delivery
- Streamlined and efficient research study set up across an Alliance of hospital trusts
- Specialist support for Med Tech and Device studies
- Successful commercial and vaccine trial delivery
Support we offer
We have a combined research delivery workforce of 150 people and additional 12 core governance and Chief investigator and clinical support staff.
Through a dedicated portal ([email protected]) you can send an enquiry and a member of our highly skilled Chief Investigator Support team who will set up an initial scoping meeting where we will agree the categorisation of your study, and support you in identifying a clinical expert/partner for your study, building a research team and linking with specialist advice and academic partners to take your research from initial idea through to funding, regulatory approvals and successful completion.
We are the host organisation for Med Connect North (https://medconnectnorth.com/) and have dedicated staff to specifically support the development of Med Tech and device studies for SMEs.
If you are looking to the TVRA to deliver your own study that has been sponsored elsewhere you can contact our team ([email protected]) and they will liaise with the relevant team leader and delivery staff to undertake feasibility and then support you with local C&C to open the study at our TVRA sites.
We have many Chief Investigators, experienced in gaining prestigious grants to run research trials across a range of disciplines. Our CI studies cover a range of disease areas below:
- Trauma and Orthopaedics
- Cardiovascular Surgery
- Cardiology
- Gastroenterology
- Palliative Care
- Urology
- Pain
- Anaesthetics
- Infectious Diseases
- Plastic Surgery
- Peri-operative Medicine
- Neonates
- Renal Medicine
- Community Geriatric Medicine
- Diabetes
- Med Tech
Eligibility criteria
We can support any research project idea but it must be categorised as research according to the HRA decision tool (https://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/) and under advice from our Governance Manager.
Funding
Whilst we are unable to provide direct funding for research projects, we can support you to obtain this from external funders.
We do have an allocation of Research Capability Funding (RCF) for internal applicants that can support your time to develop a research project. Please contact the R&D office to find out more.