Commercial Clinical Research Trials Roadmap

Aileen Burn is Research Matron for The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a position she has held since 2012.  Aileen trained at St Michael’s Hospital in Dublin, taking up her first position as a staff nurse in 1989.  She gained experience in neuroscience after moving to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, and Maida Vale in London before moving to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1992. 

Roles held in the North East have included specialist nurse in multiple sclerosis in Sunderland and junior sister on the neuro high dependency unit at the Regional Neuroscience Centre in Newcastle.  She holds a master’s degree in advanced nursing from Sunderland University (2005).    

Karl is a Lead Nurse for Research and Innovation (Education) at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT). He works within R & I to support clinical research delivery throughout LTHT. He has extensive clinical, educational, research and leadership experience. 

Karl is currently responsible for education and training for all staff involved in Research delivery and is the lead for the LTHT Research Academy. He acts as a source of expert advice in regulatory, governance and feasibility issues within the units he supports and the wider trust. Within the trust he has successfully developed, delivered and evaluated the package of training that is offered via the LTHT Research Academy. He is also a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) accredited Good Clinical Practice (GCP) facilitator and delivers educational sessions on GCP, research governance, informed consent and investigator oversight to all grades of research delivery staff at a local and regional level. 

Until recently he was an expert committee member of a local Health Research Authority Research Ethics Committee and has served on national committees and steering groups for the Royal College of Nursing Research Society and is a current member of the Association of UK Lead Research Nurses (AUKLRN).

Tanya is the Acting Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Industry Operations Manager for the NIHR Clinical Research Network Yorkshire and Humber (CRN Y&H). The CRN Y&H promotes increased opportunities for people to take part in health and social care research, facilitates effective and efficient study setup and delivery, and supports the Government’s Strategy for UK Life Sciences by improving the environment for commercial contract research in health and social settings.

Tanya has a background in the life sciences Industry working for Parexel and Covance before joining the NHS in 2008 and the CRN Y&H in 2018.

Hayley started in research at a DGH as a CTA. Here, she redesigned the investigator site files contents for the Clinical Research Network, this gave her an in depth knowledge of site file maintenance and essential documentation. 

Hayley moved to the Institute of Cancer Research, where she managed and coordinated the National Study of Hodgkin Lymphoma. She went back into a hospital setting at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Hayley has worked in many departments, including Paediatrics, Lung, GI and Radiology, as a CTA, Data manager and Assistant Practitioner and has gained experience in clinical, clerical and governance aspects of clinical research. 

Currently, Hayley is working as a Senior Clinical Research Practitioner for the Clinical Research Network, division 1, this is a varied role where no two days are the same. Although their portfolio is cancer based, recently they have been working to deliver COVID vaccine trials in patients and healthy volunteers. Working on these trials, has given Hayley the opportunity to maximise her skills and develop new ways of working. This experience has had a positive impact on the rest of their portfolio as they implement new initiatives.