Published: 12 June 2025

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Today we've published a report with the ABPI on diversity and inclusion in clinical trials. Read on to find out more about our work in this area and what we want to see happen next.

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The participation of diverse and under-served groups in research is essential to improving our understanding of how illnesses affect different people and what treatments will work for them. AMRC’s annual data collection shows that our members consistently place diversity as a top priority. We know that many of our charities are doing fantastic work in this area, but also that many would like more support and guidance – and there’s more work to be done!

Last year, AMRC sent out a survey to understand how our members are supporting more diverse recruitment of participants to research studies. We also asked about the barriers and challenges they face to inform our further actions and support.

Survey findings: examples

The survey highlighted brilliant examples of activities that our charities are undertaking to promote research diversity:

Through its Targeted Transformational Funding scheme, Barts Charity has committed to funding infrastructure to support research projects that benefit under-served groups in East London, home to one of the most ethnically diverse and economically deprived populations in the UK. This includes co-funding a new clinical research facility, which will bring early-phase clinical trials to East London for the first time and prioritise disease areas where the local population has higher incidence and/or poorer outcomes.

The Vivensa Foundation (formerly Dunhill Medical Trust) frequently holds themed calls for funding which prioritise projects focusing on health inequalities and under-served communities. For example, the charity recently opened a funding call for research on evidence-based interventions that prevent, delay or reduce health and social care requirements for older adults in underserved communities.

Survey findings: challenges

The survey responses also highlighted barriers faced by charities when supporting  researchers, engaging with under-served communities, and making changes within their own organisations.

Internal	Researchers	Under-served communities
Lack of staff capacity Lack of data on areas of need Lack of charity funding	Difficulty reaching under-served groups Lack of training on diverse recruitment Lack of research funding to support diverse recruitment	Mistrust of health systems Lack/poor promotion of opportunities Language barriers or communication needs

These barriers reflect the findings of research from other organisations, including a 2024 National Voices report on addressing inequalities in clinical trials.

ABPI and AMRC event on diversity in clinical trials

Today, we’ve published a report which summarises the discussion and agreed next steps from an event we co-hosted with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) in March 2025, which focused on diversity and inclusion in clinical trials. The event brought together stakeholders from across the medical research sector, including pharmaceutical companies, medical research charities, patient contributors, and colleagues from public bodies including the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and NHS England. It aimed to showcase current activity to promote diverse participation in research, understand existing cross-sector barriers, and recommend actions to address these.

During the event, we presented the findings of our survey. AMRC charities also shared examples of innovative projects or measures they’ve introduced to improve research participant diversity. We heard from:

• Alex Edwards from Parkinson’s UK, who described the charity’s activities as part of their Race Equality in Research project, which aims to improve ethnic minority representation in Parkinson’s research. 
• Ian Jarrold from Asthma + Lung UK, who outlined the changes the charity has made to its research grant application and evaluation processes for clinical research studies, which now require details of how a study will reflect the real-world patient population. This has led to improved engagement on inclusivity and diversity from applicants.
• Emma Gray from the MS Society, who spoke about the ChariotMS and Octopus clinical trials, which have opened recruitment to wheelchair-bound MS patients, who historically have been excluded from MS trials.

Today’s report includes three key actions to achieve meaningful improvements in diversity and inclusivity at all levels of clinical research:

1. Develop a cross-sector, UK-wide strategy and roadmap for greater access to and inclusion in clinical trials. 
2. Share and promote best practice for improving clinical research inclusion.
3. Develop an approach for measuring, collecting and reporting clinical trial diversity.

 Read the full report

We’ll be using the insights we’ve gained through this work to share and promote best practice in clinical trial diversity and inclusion. This will involve developing new resources that share examples from AMRC members, and continuing to update our EDI Hub. We’re also updating our Research Essentials course, which runs twice a year, to include a session on EDI and patient and public involvement (PPI).