Case Study: UK Health Research Authority streamlines clinical trial approvals—cutting review time from 91 to 54 days—with Pegasystems

UK Health Research Authority Modernizing to quickly bring health research to the public

The UK Health Research Authority (HRA) oversees ethical and regulatory review of health and social care research across the UK, handling roughly 5,000–6,000 applications a year. Faced with multiple application routes, manual processes and long approval times—constraints made more urgent by COVID-19—the HRA needed a simpler, faster and more flexible way to support researchers and protect the public. It selected Pegasystems as its IT partner to modernize its application pathways.

Using the Pega Government Platform, HRA piloted a Combined Ways of Working with the MHRA to deliver a single UK application route and coordinated ethics and regulatory review. The new system cut average end-to-end approval time from 91 days to 54 days, added 24/7 online booking and online amendments for legacy submissions, freed staff from administrative tasks, and delivered an agile platform HRA can scale and adapt as it expands functionality to all application types and other business processes.

UK Health Research Authority

Mary Cubitt

Research Systems Programmes Director