Why Recruit with PCRNI?
Why Recruit in Primary Care?
Recruiting and delivering research in and with the Primary Care sector gives sponsors faster, smarter access to diverse, real-world patient populations. Primary Care offers unrivalled reach across common and chronic conditions, enabling rapid patient identification, strong relational engagement, and higher retention through trusted clinician–patient relationships. By embedding research into everyday care, sponsors benefit from quicker recruitment, streamlined delivery, and high-quality, representative data making Primary Care a powerful, efficient platform for successful delivery.
Why Recruit with Primary Care Research NI?
PCRNI is in the building phase of a dedicated, agile team of experienced GPs, research nurses, and project management support to deliver studies reliably and at pace. Our network provides access to Primary Care, Secondary Care partnerships, academia, and Industry, with a collaborative approach designed to accelerate study set-up and reduce participant recruitment timelines, helping Sponsors achieve results faster.
Why Recruit in Northern Ireland?
Representativeness in research is an important orientating aspect of the mission, vision and values of PCRNI. Northern Ireland communities experience the greatest levels of socio-economic deprivation in the UK reflecting the challenges of poverty, unemployment, trauma, and limited access to resources on both physical and mental health. Recruiting with PCRNI therefore offers the opportunity to ensure representative recruitment. With recruitment across Northern Ireland, we hope to address research equity by working in partnership with Deep End GP Practices. Northern Ireland is also aligned with the ambitions of UK national strategy to reduce clinical trial start up times to below 150 days.
“The leadership of Professor Nigel Hart and the Primary Care research community in Northern Ireland was invaluable to the success of the PANORAMIC trial during the challenges of a continually changing landscape during the COVID Pandemic.
Their commitment to engaging GP Practices, supporting patient participation, and bridging research delivery helped exemplify how integrated primary care networks in Northern Ireland can play a key role in recruiting diverse patient populations to clinical trials in short timelines”
Disease Prevalence in Northern Ireland
Rapid Participant Identification
The General Practice Intelligence Platform (GPIP) is an aggregated, daily download of coded data from NI General Practice (including coded clinical conditions). This integrated platform can enable secure and efficient searching of anonymised patient records against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, allowing researchers to rapidly identify potentially eligible participants for clinical trials. Permission to access to this dataset for the identification of potential research participants is governed by our partners in Primary Care. Full utilisation of GPIP will enhance the speed, accuracy, and scalability of clinical research, support high-quality studies and improve access to trials for patients across Northern Ireland.
Agile Nursing Team
Our Agile Nursing team of Marian Chindedza, Patricia Quinn, Erin Collins and Kirsten Ross have several decades of experience in clincial trials across a range of clinical areas
The Primary Care Research nursing team work across all 4 GP federations in Northern Ireland, giving access to the full 2 million of our population. This initiative brings research closer to the patient, supports study retention and supports GP Practices to deliver studies. As an agile team we can work in various disease areas with the support of Secondary Care colleagues as required.
Success Stories
Northern Ireland primary care played a pivotal role in the success of the in the urgent public health COVID-19 PANORAMIC Study. Through close collaboration between General Practices, networks and academic partners, Northern Ireland exceeded recruitment expectations and ensured rapid, high‑quality delivery of a complex community trial during the Pandemic. Clinicians and patients engaged enthusiastically, enabling timely evaluation of antiviral treatments in real‑world settings. The study showcased the capability of Northern Ireland to deliver rapid, at‑scale, UK‑wide research, embedding research in routine care, strengthening research skills across GP Practices, and reinforcing Northern Ireland’s reputation as a leader in efficient, patient‑centred clinical research.
Recruited 115 participants from primary care setting.
Facilitated a collaboration between a South Belfast GP practice and Oxford University, ensuring representation from Northern Ireland in the study.
Linking research companies with appropriate primary care facilities to enable high‑quality research delivery.
Our team exceeded recruitment targets by 40%, in a complex and remote home care setting.
Our nursing team delivered high‑quality home‑based assessments for a complex study of ageing, including comprehensive health, hearing, cognitive, and functional testing.
This increased participant retention and ensured research equity through a community-based approach.
Recruit with PCRNI
Partner with Primary Care Research Northern Ireland today to accelerate your clinical trial recruitment, gain direct access to engaged Primary Care GP Practices, diverse patient populations, and proven delivery expertise that helps you meet timelines with confidence.