The Academic and Clinical Central Office for Research and Development (ACCORD) is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian Health Board. NHS Lothian has an excellent international reputation for its clinical research activities, while Edinburgh University is Scotland’s top-ranked research institution and one of the UK’s leading research universities. By drawing together key research management staff from these organisations, ACCORD provides streamlined access to professional advice, expert regulatory support and world class clinical research infrastructure. We support researchers and commercial companies throughout the UK and internationally to conduct their clinical research. This partnership is underpinned by the first joint Research Framework Agreement in Scotland.

ACCORD supports around 1000 projects every year, ranging from small student studies to complex interventional investigations and multi centre international trials. We work very closely with industry to deliver a growing portfolio of commercial studies across a broad spectrum of disease and we provide advanced infrastructure to enable the development and execution of increasingly complicated and innovative projects. Providing a single point of entry for researchers throughout the lifecycle of their studies, our aim is to ensure that we all meet research governance and regulatory requirements, fulfilling legal, ethical and scientific obligations, whilst nurturing and attracting world class research.