Edinburgh is well equipped with support facilities, each offering different services depending on the nature and requirements of your research. 

Investigational Supplies Group and the HealthcareTechnology Accelerator Facility (HTAF)

ISG as part of HTAF provides investigational medicinal products and other clinical agents in support of UoE and NHS Lothian clinical and non-clinical trials.
Holding the necessary authorisations from the MHRA, the service aims to meet the needs of the investigator and research community within UoE and NHS Lothian through the provision of in-house, GMP compliant capabilities and facilities for the Re-labelling and Packaging of Investigational and Non-Investigational Medicinal Products and providing advice on the sourcing and costing for proposals. Alongside ISG is an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient laboratory capable of supplying API’s, stability and analytical packages for early stage clinical studies. Further investment is on-going to provide investigators and researchers with a sterile liquid manufacture service to extend the resources we can offer. Please get in touch with the HTAF team at the email address below to discuss your requirements.

Email: HTAF@ed.ac.uk

 

Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility

The Edinburgh CRF is a joint venture between University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian, operating on all the clinical sites in Edinburgh. We offer fully equipped patient care facilities for conducting clinical studies and were the first academic non-commercial clinical research facility in the UK to receive accreditation under the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Phase I Scheme. Our tried and tested Quality Assurance system ensures that your study will be conducted in line with current governance and regulatory requirements. To complement the Clinical & Nursing core our scientific cores (Genetics, Mass Spectrometry, Image Analysis, Epidemiology & Statistics) and specialist support teams have many years’ experience in supporting high quality, high impact clinical research. 

Email Study Information Manager

 

Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit

ECTU is a UKCRN registered unit providing generic support for clinical trial design, trial management, database development and management. The unit is partnered with the MRC Statistics Methodology Hub providing statistical support for the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials. 

Email ECTU.

 

Pharmacy

Contact the NHS Lothian Pharmacy Clinical Trials Team for advice and information on drug availability and source, pack size, strengths, formulation, packaging and labelling requirements in line with regulations as well as pharmacy capacity and resource for study support and all associated costs if your study involves administration of a drug.

For Clinical Trials of an Investigational Medicinal Product (CTIMPs) early discussion with pharmacy is essential to establish what is required in the way of additional manufacture, assembly, packaging, labelling and storage to ensure compliance with the current regulations.

Email the NHS Lothian Pharmacy Clinical Trials Team.

 

Laboratories

NHS Lothian laboratories undertake lab testing and pathology requests for small studies, as well as clinical trials. Please contact the Department of Laboratory Medicine’s Research Project Lead at the earliest opportunity to discuss any potential testing within NHS Lothian labs that your study may require. We are able to provide costs for all NHS Lothian lab testing and help facilitate and maintain all lab aspects for the duration of the study.

Email Research Project Lead

 

Edinburgh Imaging

Edinburgh Imaging connects:

• world leading multidisciplinary academic and technical imaging expertise
• cutting edge research imaging modalities
• delivery of diagnostic imaging services
• supporting laboratories, image analysis, data processing and management

Integration of University of Edinburgh’s research imaging capabilities with NHS Lothian clinical diagnostic services creates an imaging powerhouse capable of delivering highly specialised AND high volume imaging outputs.  Edinburgh Imaging can support development of novel imaging research processes and products as well as delivery of imaging trial data.  This can be done via either collaborative or service-based activity, including consultancy advice for all imaging-related activities.   Edinburgh Imaging can also support imaging trial activity at any stage and at any volume; from project inception and design (including image analysis pipelines) through site set up and qualification through to collection and presentation of data outputs.  Edinburgh Imaging activity is scalable, we can act as a single site, as a contributing site in a multi-centre network or as a coordinating centre site of a multi-centre international imaging trial.

Website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/clinical-sciences/edinburgh-imaging

Email: duncan.martin@ed.ac.uk

 

Radiology

If your study involves radiology, please make contact with this department as soon as possible to discuss feasibility and requirements.  This includes any research enquiries related to DEXA scans overseen by Medical Physics.

Email: Caroline.Brydon@luht.scot.nhs.uk

 

University of Edinburgh - Research Platforms and Facilities in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM)

UoE have a number of ACCORD 'vendor approved' expert platforms and facilities that support experimental medicine as well as clinical trials. These include Genetics, Clinical Mass Spectrometry, Image Analysis and Clinical Biochemistry specialist assay facilities. Each core facility can provide expert advice including sample collection, quality controls and interpretation of the results. We can provide costs, develop new methodologies, offer comprehensive sample storage, data management all in GCP compliant laboratories. Please contact the UoE Core Facility network chair at the earliest opportunity if you have queries about laboratory measurements that your clinical study may require.

 

Mass Spectrometry Facility - Mass Spectrometry | The University of Edinburgh

Email: Natalie Homer, n.z.m.homer@ed.ac.uk

Genetics Core - Genetics | The University of Edinburgh

Email: Lee Murphy, lee.murphy@ed.ac.uk 

SURF Laboratories - Facilities – SURF (ed.ac.uk) 

IGC Facilities - Facilities | The University of Edinburgh

British Hearth Foundation Cardiovascular Biomarker Laboratory 

Email: CVS.biomarkers@ed.ac.uk , t.fujisawa@ed.ac.uk

 

Further information on University of Edinburgh CMVM Shared Research Facilities can be found here

 

NHS Facilities

Other support is available via NHS Lothian departments. For information, contact the Head of Research Governance.