The King's Clinical Research Facility is designed to support clinical trials on a broad range of topics including mental health and general medicine. These clinical trials may be sponsored by pharmaceutical companies (known as commercial trials) or sponsored by the NHS, Research Councils or Charities (known as non-commercial trials).
The King’s Clinical Research Facility is made up of four research areas listed below. They are all based physically at King’s College Hospital acting in partnership with South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital.
- The Experimental Medicine Facility: this contains rooms set up with clinical equipment, such as the equipment needed to take blood or to give medication, and specialised rooms where volunteers and patients with particular conditions taking part in clinical trials can be interviewed.
- The Cell Therapy Unit: where human-cell and gene-based therapies can be produced.
- The Clinical Trials Facility: this contains ward beds and rooms where volunteers and patients with particular conditions taking part in clinical trials can be examined.
- The Imaging Facility: this contains a 3T magnetic resonance imaging scanner and we are expecting a second scanner to be installed in 2023.
Figure 1: Research areas within the King's Clinical Research Facility
The King’s Clinical Research Facility has clinical research and support staff to help research teams with their studies. Research teams from across the hospital undertaking commercial or non-commercial trials must apply to use the CRF and to work with our staff.
The wider King’s Clinical Research Facility Strategy outlines our aim to provide an excellent facility for the efficient and safe conduct of clinical trials. We hope these clinical trials will lead to developments that transform the lives of patients. We believe this aim can only be achieved by working alongside:
- Researchers from many different disciplines, locations, and backgrounds
- Staff, such as Research Nurses, Clinical Research Practitioners, and Administrators, from many different disciplines, locations, and backgrounds
- Public members from many different locations and backgrounds with varied work and lived experiences and interests
To view the acronyms written out in full, please visit the 'acronyms' section of the strategy by clicking here
