Mission Statement:

The Yorkshire Cancer Research Network will support high quality cancer trials to improve the speed, quality and integration of research within the Yorkshire Cancer Network, ultimately resulting in improved patient care. Recruitment of patients into cancer trials will be promoted in line with the NCRN Development Plan.

Awareness of research will be raised amongst service users and health care professionals and we/the YCRN will facilitate service user involvement in generating new research ideas and developing these projects.

Yorkshire Cancer Network- The Yorkshire Cancer Network (YCN) supports and promotes the implementation of improvements in cancer care as part of the ‘NHS Cancer Plan’, to deliver high quality care for cancer patients. The YCRN is the research arm of the Yorkshire Cancer Network.

NCRN Development Plan– A detailed strategic document developed by the National Cancer Research Network on how local networks will be expected to perform and the objectives that must be achieved in a 3 year timeframe.

Service User– A patient or carer involved in the use of a particular service provided within the NHS.

Projects- A research proposal that has been conceived and developed, with a specific question or questions to be answered. This is achieved by clearly defined goals as agreed by all researchers involved.

YCRN Aims & Objectives

Maintain a balanced portfolio and recruitment into clinical trials in line with the NCRN Performance Plan.

Promote research awareness in healthcare professionals and service users both directly and indirectly involved in the research process.

Promote user involvement in development of research ideas and study development.

Improve the speed, quality and integration of research into clinical practice, ultimately resulting in improved patient care.

Involve the stakeholders in decision making in a transparent and equitable way.

Provide clear channels of communication between the YCRN and the wider network research community.

Provide and facilitate a comprehensive training and education programme.

NCRI
The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is a partnership between the major cancer research funding bodies from the government, charitable and private sectors. The main mission of the NCRI is to advance improvements in cancer care and prevention, making sure that patients benefit from cancer research in the UK. As well as promoting and funding research, the NCRI partners aim to make the results of research widely available so that new knowledge can then be applied in further research, and companies can use the information to develop new treatments and diagnostics.

NCRN
The National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) is a managed research network mapping directly onto the NHS cancer service networks across England. Funding for NCRN supports the provision of research nurses, data managers and the expertise of clinicians, radiologists, pharmacists and pathologists. Its aim is to improve the speed, quality and integration of research ultimately resulting in improved patient care.

YCRN
The Yorkshire Cancer Research Network (YCRN) is the research arm of the Yorkshire Cancer Network (YCN) and part of the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN). Based at Cookridge Hospital in Leeds, the YCRN supports cancer research through maintaining clinical trial portfolios, promoting service user and healthcare professional involvement in research, and providing a training and education programme for research staff.

Department of Health (DOH)
The overall purpose of the Department of Health is to help improve the health and wellbeing of everyone in England. They do this by leading and supporting NHS and social care organisations so they can provide fair, high quality services that offer real choice for patients, as well as best value for taxpayers.
The Department of Health directly fund the UKCRN/NCRN which in turn provide funds to local research networks (YCRN).

Cancer Services Collaborative Improvement Partnership (CSC-IP)
The Yorkshire Cancer Network’s CSC-IP work with clinical teams throughout the network to examine, in detail, the way services are delivered and test ways of making improvements on a small scale before introducing widespread change throughout he network.

UKCRN
The UK Clinical Research Network consists of a managed set of Topic Specific Clinical Research Networks, covering cancer, dementias and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, medicines for children, mental health and stroke, together with a Primary Care Research Network. In the field of cancer, the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) works as part of the UKCRN to focus on the development of a high quality, balanced portfolio of studies that cover a broad range of disease areas in order to sustain and increase accrual into cancer studies. There are a total of 41 Local Research Networks in cancer across the UK, of which the Yorkshire Cancer Research Network (YCRN) is one of them.

YCN
The Yorkshire Cancer Network was established to support and promote the implementation of improvements in cancer care. Cancer Networks are the organisational model for cancer services to implement the ‘NHS Cancer Plan’. The Network aims to ensure that they are working effectively together to deliver high quality care for cancer patients - this is carried out by all commissioners and providers of cancer care. The YCRN is the research arm of the Yorkshire Cancer Network.