ABSTRACT
The greatest capability in the UK currently lies in the national collaborations between the top academic departments of general practice and primary care; in achieving more multicentre trials, cohort studies, data syntheses and programmes of mixed quantitative and qualitative research; and in training doctoral and postdoctoral research leaders of the future. Scotland and Wales also have national schools for primary care research, which means that their departments can speak with one voice and obtain support collaboratively, rather than waste effort in competing with each other. Multicentre trials, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme, often costing in excess of 1 million euros, are directed at identifying interventions that will make a difference to patient care within 5 years of completion. European Union (EU) funding, which must involve several countries, has facilitated the development of some very large multi-country trials.
