Clinical research is the way that healthcare professionals gather evidence about "what works", so we can learn how to improve the treatments we give to NHS patients. Carrying out clinical research has always been a core part of the work of the NHS, and is enshrined in the NHS Constitution. The National Institute for Clinical Research Network is funded by the Department of Health to deliver high quality clinical research in the NHS for the benefit of patients. We do this by providing NHS Trusts with funding to employ research nurses, and cover the use of facilities (such x-rays or scans) needed to do research. We also manage the delivery of clinical studies in the NHS - making sure that each study attracts the right numbers of patients in a timely way. We deal with almost 3,000 research studies, and last year, through our work, more than half a million patients took part in clinical research studies in the NHS. Whilst we don't represent ALL of the research activity happening in the NHS, we are involved with a large percentage of it, so we can provide journalists with the following types of information: -Data on how many studies are happening in different disease areas at the moment, and how many patients have been recruited into clinical trials -Contacts with patients who can talk about their experience of participating in a clinical study -Comment on initiatives to try to keep commercial drug/treatment development programmes in the UK, for the benefit of NHS patients