Oxford Respiratory Trials Unit (ORTU)

The Oxford Respiratory Trials Unit (ORTU) specialises in the design, delivery, analysis, and administration of trials across the broad scope of Respiratory Medicine and Respiratory Diseases. These include COPD, cough, pleural disease, respiratory sleep and breathing disorders, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, pneumonia and dyspnoea perception but we also run and support non-respiratory studies.

We are part of the UKCRC Registered Oxford Collaborative Clinical Trials Unit (OxCCTU), which brings together ORTU, the Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit, Oxford Vaccine Group, and the Jenner Institute. UKCRC registration recognises our ability to centrally co-ordinate multi-centre clinical trials, including taking full responsibility for the trial lifecycle from development to the analysis and dissemination of results. This also signifies that we have well-established and rigorous systems in place to ensure all clinical trials are conducted and delivered to the highest quality standards. You can find more information about the UKCRC at https://ukcrc-ctu.org.uk/.

OxCCTU manage trials across a wide range of therapeutic areas, whilst fostering a joined-up approach to our use of resources and expertise, resulting in synergies that allow us to conduct efficient yet focused research.

ORTU runs national and international trials related to our academic areas of interest, as well as supporting trials led by other teams and industry. Our scope of work includes clinical trials at all phases, including translational studies, phase II discovery studies, and multi-centre definitive randomised trials.

We partner with a broad range of academic funders, including the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Medical Research Council (MRC), British Lung Foundation, National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), and Cancer Research UK (CRUK), as well as partners in industry. Key funding for ORTU is derived from the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) and the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.