In January 2010, ICRIN began piloting a Research Readiness Programme with a selected number of research institutions, clinical research centres and their associated researcher teams in Ireland.

One of the catalysts for this exercise is a request from the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) to showcase Irish research capabilities on a web portal with the aim of promoting access and linkages between the research groups and clinical research centres (CRCs) and clinical trial units (CTUs) at European level.

The overall goals of the Research Readiness Programme are to evaluate the research systems which are already functioning well at a more granular level, identify the areas where more consistency of approach will be of benefit (sharing best practice) and gain information from the research teams on the research infrastructure elements which would be best addressed at a national level.

An additional goal of the review is the development of a report to inform the funders and agencies of the research infrastructure options which would best support Irish research. This report would address questions such as  what skills and expertise might be systematically developed and supported locally in decentralised hubs and what infrastructural elements might be best contained in a national coordinating body. The research systems being evaluated are depicted in the diagram below:

The Research Readiness process is initiated on foot of the scoping visit and comprises four main parts: 

• Identification of a proportion of research protocols carried out by respective institutional research teams as vehicles to assess the systems noted in the diagram above
• Completion of a report for each institution with recommendations to be delivered in the form of a face to face discussion and review 
• Development of a specific implementation plan for agreed recommendations 
• Review and feedback plan for any new processes and solutions deployed to ensure they are validated and are effective.