Published: 12 February 2025

The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN)  are working together to streamline the process for charities to become both an AMRC Member and NIHR RDN Non-commercial Partner. This process, which is now in place, will reduce the duplication of information requests and the administrative burden for charities.

In addition, this supports our mutual ambition to strengthen connections between research funding and research delivery to continue to enable the health and care system to optimise and deliver high-quality health and care research.

By sharing relevant and timely information that has already been requested by our respective organisations we are:

• Making it easier for AMRC member charities to apply to become NIHR RDN Non-commercial Partners
• Signposting relevant NIHR RDN Non-commercial Partners to the AMRC to support discussions on becoming an AMRC member

As part of this, we are highlighting the benefits this brings:

• Being an NIHR RDN Non-commercial Partner enables studies funded by these charities faster access to the full range of services offered by the NIHR RDN helping researchers to plan, place, and deliver research.
• Being an AMRC member enables charities to connect and collaborate with other charities and stakeholders, to access support to fund high-quality, impactful research, and to influence the wider research and funding system as a collective voice.

Louise Lambert, National Portfolio Eligibility Lead, NIHR RDN: “Streamlining Partner and Member processes will not only reduce requests for information from charities but will further strengthen connections between research funding and delivery. This will better enable the health and care system to optimise and deliver high-quality research in an efficient and cost-effective way.”

Catriona Manville, Director of Research Policy, AMRC: "It's been great work with NIHR to reduce the administrative burden on our charities so that they can better use their time supporting research that saves and improves lives. This new process will also encourage more collaborations between our charities and the NIHR to help deliver benefits to patients sooner."

For further details access the FAQs on the NIHR website.