Bringing science to parliamentarians
This year Emma Lawrence (Research Engagement Manager) successfully secured a secondment with cross-party think tank Policy Connect. Read more about her experience with policy engagement.
Policy
The Future of UK Biobanking Coordination
Over the last 6 months the UKCRC TDCC has been undertaking a review of biobanking in the UK, to help shape a vision for the future. Find out more and have your say!
Open Life Science
There is a lot of talk about being open in research nowadays: open access, transparency, FAIR principles… but what does it mean and how does it affect you? Emma Lawrence, Engagement Manager explains all in this blog.
Supporting Researchers with Governance in Biobanking
Supporting Researchers with Governance in Biobanking Researchers need more support when it comes to sharing tissue samples and data a new report by the MRC Regulatory Support Centre has revealed. Confusion over whether consent allowed sharing, and with the paperwork and logistics of sharing was found. The results were based on a survey of 365 researchers and research managers (July to October 2019). The report covered a range of issues… Read More »Supporting Researchers with Governance in Biobanking
Capturing value through Researchfish
The Researchfish reporting system offers an opportunity to understand when human sample resources contribute in health research. The UKCRC TDCC spoke to stakeholders to explore potential.
GDPR for Biobanks – A sheep in wolf’s clothing?
In our latest blog post we hear from Heather Coupar from MRC’s Regulatory Support Centre about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
ISO Biobank Standards
ISO Biobank Standards Assuring researchers as to the quality or standard of a Biobank is an important issue. We are here to keep you abreast of all the latest developments in the field. You may have heard that new ISO Biobank standards are coming soon, but who is writing them and how can you get involved? Gareth Bicknell, HBRC Operations Manager at the University of Birmingham explains more here. What… Read More »ISO Biobank Standards
New HTA codes of practice
New HTA codes of practice In April the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) published updated Codes of practice. This guest blog by Regulation Manager, Fiona Maleady-Crowe explains what this means for Biobanks. What are the Codes of Practice? The HTA’s Codes of Practice provide practical guidance on the human tissue legislation and set out the HTA’s licensing standards. The Codes are important resources which help researchers and establishments comply with our… Read More »New HTA codes of practice
HRA publishes new proportionate consent guidance
The Health Research Authority (HRA) have published new guidance on taking a proportionate approach to consent, particularly in reference to clinical trials.
Only a minority of biobanks have a publicly available access policy
A recent study has found that only around 9% of biobanks have a publicly available access policy. Given that most biobanks are funded by the public, there is an expectation that the samples they contain are made available for external research purposes that could ultimately have a social benefit. But for this to happen, clear access policies need to govern the conditions under which samples can be used for external… Read More »Only a minority of biobanks have a publicly available access policy