4.3. Table 8 shows overall recruitment to time and target for studies closed to recruitment in 2025-26 was 52%, much lower than the closely related target in the UK Clinical Research Delivery Performance Indicators, which is 80% of open studies recruiting to time and target.
Table 8. OUH hosted studies closed to recruitment in 2025-26
| Study Type | Number closed to recruitment in 2025-26 | Recruitment completed to time and target (%) | |
| Recruitment time AND target met (%) | Recruitment target met or exceeded (%) | ||
| Commercial | 60 | 35 (58%) | 44 (73%) |
| Non-commercial | 114 | 55 (48%) | 68 (60%) |
| Interventional | 112 | 58 (52%) | 71 (63%) |
| Non-interventional | 62 | 32 (52%) | 41 (66%) |
| NIHR portfolio | 161 | 84 (52%) | 104 (65%) |
| Non-portfolio | 13 | 6 (46%) | 8 (62%) |
| All | 174 | 90 (52%) | 112 (64%) |
4.4. The proportion of studies at OUH which recruit to time and target needs to be increased substantially. Current levels of recruitment performance present a reputational risk, poor use of resources, missed opportunities for patients and – for commercial studies – a failure to leverage the initial investment in study set-up to generate surplus funds. This is a key area to be addressed in the R&D strategy currently in development, in order to align all those involved in OUH research delivery.
4.5. The percentage of studies which recruited to (or exceeded) their target, including those that took longer than agreed to meet/exceed their target, is significantly higher. An analysis of all 22 studies that completed recruitment in 2025-26 and had met (or exceeded) their recruitment target but missed their recruitment window demonstrates that 17 (77%) over-ran their recruitment window by ≤10% (see Figure 5 below). This suggests that improvements which bring forward recruitment by only a small margin – including faster set-up times – should have a significant impact on the Trust’s overall recruitment to time and target.