secure all relevant support directorate approvals (pharmacy, labs, radiology/imaging); ensure trained staff are study infrastructure in place; be ready for Site Initiation Visit and opening to recruitment; issue Capacity & Capability sign-off and execute the contract (mCTA).
Site opening to first participant recruited - target is 30 days. This is the time during which the study PI and delivery team have to consent the first participant, from the ‘Date Site Ready to Start’ agreed with the study sponsor. This may be later than the Date Site Confirmed, especially for CTIMPs (drug trials). This interval between Date Site Confirmed and Date Site Ready to Start does not count towards any of the national metrics.
4.4. The UKCRD publishes 90-day performance for all Trusts in England every month. It is restricted to all NIHR portfolio commercial interventional trials (with a few specific categories excluded) which recruited their first participant in the previous six months, and along with the 90-day metric performance it also includes a breakdown of their reports their performance to the 60- and 30-day targets.
4.5. The data in the Table 5 have been sourced from the UKCRD report, published on 31 March 2026. It includes for the 10 Shelford Group Trusts the percentage of studies meeting the 90- (and 60- and 30-) day targets for all commercial interventional trials that recruited their first participant during the six months ending 20 March 2026, i.e. during the second half of 2025-26.
4.6. The ‘ranking’ has been added to show the performance of OUH and the other Shelford Group Trusts relative to each other, and to all Trusts in England.
4.7. For the 90-day target, OUH ranked 6th out of the 10 Shelford Group and 43rd out of 73 Trusts in England which recruited the first participant to more than two commercial interventional trials in the second half of 2025-26. OUH is in the third quartile for performance against the 60- and 30-day targets.
4.8. Comparable data for non-commercial clinical trials is not currently available in the UKCRD reports.