England’s health regulator eyes 24h turnaround for study approval

Post-pandemic lessons to be learnt as researchers warn that promoting ethnic diversity must become priority

England’s regulator of health and social care research says it plans to learn from the “extraordinary ways of working” during the pandemic to become more efficient in future.

According to the Health Research Authority’s (HRA) 2020-21 annual report, fast-track approvals for urgent Covid-19 research reduced average research review timelines by 90 per cent, with some studies being reviewed and approved in as little as 24 hours after submission.