For our Joint Research Office, this moment feels particularly important. We’re just over a year on since publishing our strategy and implementation plan, a year marked by solid progress, but also by a level of regulatory, and policy change few of us could have fully anticipated. If the last twelve months have taught us anything, it’s that standing still, even with the best intentions, is rarely an option.
Looking back: progress you don’t always see day to day
One of the challenges of joint, system‑wide work is that progress is often incremental and collective. It doesn’t always arrive with a ribbon-cutting moment. Instead, it shows up in quieter ways: smoother conversations between teams, fewer workarounds, clearer ownership, and a growing shared understanding of how and why we do things together.
Over the past year, the JRO has continued to mature as a function across the two organisations. Governance has strengthened, ways of working have become clearer, and trust between partners has deepened. Our communications and culture work, which can feel intangible at times are starting to pay dividends, with the JRO becoming more visible and better understood across the partnership. Professional development through sharing best practice have continued to move forward, even while operating under an ever-evolving landscape. I don’t think these are small achievements, particularly given the wider context.
A changing landscape: adapting without losing our core purpose
For those directly involved in delivering the plans of our JRO, the last twelve months have been about adaptation.
Regulatory and policy changes have reshaped expectations around study set‑up timelines, sponsorship models, transparency, and inclusion. Locally, our organisations have had to rethink priorities and absorb new ways of working at pace. For the JRO, this has meant making conscious choices: slowing some initiatives, accelerating others, and being honest about what could realistically be delivered without compromising safety, quality or our people.
What hasn’t changed is our purpose: The JRO exists to enable high‑quality, compliant, and efficient research across the partnership. The route to get there may shift, but the destination remains the same. Refreshing our strategy isn’t about ripping things up; it’s about recalibrating, while considering the reality.
Refreshing the strategy: from direction to delivery
The refreshed JRO strategy for the year ahead is intentionally focused. It sharpens attention on the areas that matter most right now: maintaining robust governance through regulatory transition, supporting new sponsorship arrangements, embedding changes to systems and processes, and continuing to invest in communication, culture and professional development.
I don’t think this is a step backwards. If anything, it reflects a more confident system, one that understands that impact comes from sequencing and focus, not from trying to do everything at once.
Crucially, the refresh also creates space to begin thinking ahead. Beyond the immediate pressures, we are laying the foundations for the next phase of the JRO’s evolution, informed by what we’ve learned about partnership working, capacity, and the realities of operating in a complex research ecosystem.
The annual report: more than just a record
Alongside the strategy refresh, we’re also producing our first annual report. It would be easy to see this as a retrospective exercise, a catalogue of meetings, workstreams and outputs. Instead, we’ve approached it as something more useful: a shared narrative of progress.
The annual report captures what has been achieved and what that tells us about how we work together. It provides transparency, but also context. Importantly, it allows us to recognise the contribution of the many teams and individuals whose efforts underpin the JRO.
For partners, stakeholders and colleagues, the report offers a clear account of where the JRO has added value and where further work is needed. For us internally, it’s a chance to reflect honestly and learn.
Looking ahead: confidence, not certainty
As we move into the next year, certainty still feels in short supply. Policy will continue to evolve, expectations will remain high, and pressures on capacity are unlikely to ease overnight. But what we do have is greater clarity about who we are as a JRO, what we can deliver well, and how we adapt when circumstances change.
Taking stock isn’t about slowing down. It’s about making sure we’re moving forward deliberately, together, and with a shared understanding of what matters most. The strategy refresh and annual report are milestones, not endpoints. They are part of an ongoing conversation about how the JRO continues to support excellent research across the partnership.
Please look out for both the strategy and the annual report. They are both going through final revisions, and we hope to publish them soon.
To conclude, if the past year has taught us anything, it’s that even in the midst of change, there is a great deal to be proud of and plenty to build on.