Webinar: Prof Frances Shiely & Dr Adwoa Parker - Reducing barriers to SWAT adoption: practical recruitment and retention resources from PRESS

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Recruitment and retention challenges remain a major threat to the success, efficiency, and value of clinical trials. While Studies Within A Trial (SWATs) offer a robust way to evaluate trial process interventions, their uptake has been limited by a lack of practical, ready-to-use resources.

This webinar will present the PRESS (Protocols and Resources for Priority Recruitment and Retention SWATs) project, which has co-developed with PPI partners, a comprehensive, openly accessible suite of protocols and supporting materials to enable trial teams to embed high-priority recruitment and retention SWATs with confidence. Attendees will be introduced to the PRESS Master SWAT Protocol Template, a set of randomised recruitment and retention SWAT protocols, co-produced PPI-focused SWATs, and accompanying guidance on ethics, statistical analysis, health economics, accessibility, and funding applications.

The webinar will focus on how these resources can be used in practice to reduce barriers to SWAT adoption, accelerate evidence generation, and enhance trial efficiency.

Speaker:

Professor Frances Shiely is Professor of Clinical Trials at University College Cork (UCC), Director of Education at the HRB Clinical Research Facility, UCC, and UCC lead for the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network. Her work focuses on clinical trials methodology, particularly communication and the use of Studies Within A Trial (SWATs) to improve recruitment, retention, and trial efficiency, alongside the development of training and education for trialists and patient and public partners. She has led or co-led over €20 million in competitive research funding and is Founder and Director of Ireland’s MSc in Clinical Trials.

Dr Adwoa Parker is a UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of York, UK. As a trialist and trial methodologist, she leads the Trial Forge Studies Within A Trial (SWATs) Centre at the University of York. SWATs are self-contained studies embedded within host randomised trials, designed to generate robust evidence that improves the efficiency, design, and delivery of future clinical research. Adwoa’s 10-year NIHR Advanced Fellowship, ‘IMPLEMENT SWATs’, focuses on the intersection of implementation science and methodology to enhance evidence-informed participant recruitment and retention. Beyond her primary focus on trial methodology, her research interests encompass mental health trials, Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), and the advancement of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within clinical research. Adwoa is also the Fellowship Lead for the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS), delivered by University of York and Partners