An experienced and efficient organization

Clinical Research Institute HUCH Ltd is owned by HUS Joint Authority. It is an efficient and agile organization, that produces and develops management services for medical and health sciences research. In addition to the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, the Clinical Research Institute HUCH works in partnership with the University of Helsinki.

The Clinical Research Institute HUCH has more than 25 years of experience in providing management services for clinical trials. The services include drawing up contracts, budgeting, financial administration, personnel administration and monitoring and reporting during the trials.

HUS – Helsinki University Hospital

• one of the largest hospitals in Europe
– 25,000 staff, including 3400  doctors
– 2.8 million patient visits
• has access to the largest health information resource in Europe
– data pool and biobank data
• over 1800 research projects in progress
– phase I (first in human) – phase IV
– in all therapeutic areas
• 3400 scientific publications and 150 doctoral theses every year

High-level Research

The main purpose of Clinical Research Institute HUCH is to promote high-level international research for the benefit of patients in the whole area of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.

In addition to the expertise provided by the specialists and skilled nursing staff at HUS, we have the know-how of the researchers at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki at our disposal. HUS and the Faculty of Medicine form clinical medical research network in the country. The Clinical Research Institute HUCH operates at the heart of the internationally important Meilahti campus.

Research gives benefits to patient care in two ways:
directly through research innovations and through the expertise it creates. Those involved in high-level research have in-depth practical knowledge of the diseases they study. Research also yields economic benefits for society as a whole, as the pharmaceutical industry meets research costs and produces investigational medicinal products.

Business Operations

The majority of the company’s revenue comes from research agreements made with international pharmaceutical companies in 2019, revenue and other income totalled 8.6 million euros. Besides pharmaceutical and health technology companies, significant customer groups include high-level research units of HUS and various health technology companies.

We receive 100-120 new assignments per year. A number of studies last for years. Currently the Clinical Research Institute HUCH has over 400 research projects in progress.

Research Management Services

The Clinical Research Institute HUCH Research Management Services Team administers externally-funded medical research projects. The team ensures that each research group can carry out research work safely and with adequate resources. Our core objective is to provide efficient, reliable, equal and transparent services to our stakeholders.

Good Clinical Practice

All research projects overseen by the Clinical Research Institute HUCH follow the international Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, an international ethical and scientific quality standard for planning, implementing, recording and reporting on clinical trials involving human subjects.

Compliance with good clinical practice ensures that clinical
trial subjects’ rights, safety and well-being are protected in accordance with the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and that the results of clinical trials are reliable.

Participation in a clinical trial is always voluntary and based on informed consent after receiving detailed information about the trial. Participation in a clinical trial is usually a positive experience when the subjects are taken care of by specially trained research staff, who have access to the latest medicines.

Research Agreement Services

The Clinical Research Institute HUCH oversees all agreements required during a research project. Research agreements govern the parties’ rights and obligations and ensure the well-being and safety of subjects. At best, research leads to inventions that can be patented or trademarked, so that they can be developed into commercial products.

Research Services Team
HYKSCoordinators@hus.fi
– issues relating to contacts with sponsors and researchers

Monitoring Services

The Clinical Research Institute HUCH offers monitoring services for investigator-initiated clinical trials.  Monitoring is done in compliance with current legislation and regulations, Good Clinical Practice  (GCP) guideline and the standard operating procedure of the Clinical Research Institute HUCH.

The purpose of trial monitoring is to ensure:
• Rights, safety and well-being of trial subjects
• Reliability and high quality of research results
• That the research is conducted in compliance with the trial protocol, GCP guideline and applicable regulatory requirements

Quality Assurance and
Monitoring

Trial monitoring is an important part of quality assurance in clinical research. Monitoring supports researchers in their efforts to perform high-quality clinical trials. It is recommended to contact a research monitor at an early stage of planning the research. The extent and nature of monitoring is defined in a study-specific monitoring plan, which is made in co-operation with the researcher. During the research project, monitoring visits are conducted according to the monitoring plan.  Frequency of monitoring visits depends on the recruitment rate, the risks involved in the study and amount of data to be collected. The first monitoring visit is done before the start of recruitment to ensure that the trial starts smoothly.

Financial Administration Services

The Financial Administration Team is in charge of sales invoicing, invoice processing, pay and remuneration, payment and bookkeeping at The Clinical Research Institute HUCH. The Financial Administration team is responsible for ensuring that bookkeeping is accurate and uses it as a basis for preparing reports to the owners, authorities and other stakeholders. The Clinical Research Institute HUCH is the employer for the whole research group for externally-funded studies conducted at HUS. 

Research group members employed by HUS are automatically granted secondary occupation permissions when research permission is granted. The Clinical Research Institute HUCH compensates employees for work performed in the form of pay or remuneration according to the budget. Researchers agree on remuneration to be paid with the Research Management Coordinator of The Clinical Research Institute HUCH and members of the research group.

The Financial Administration Team produces a report for the researchers that shows the research income, expenses and balance, as well as research events since the beginning of the year. At the end of the study the researcher receives the final report of the total income and expenses of the project.

Research Grant Administration Services

Grants awarded by foundations are administered at the Clinical Research Institute HUCH when using HUS premises or resources. The Clinical Research Institute HUCH does not deal with grants from the NIH, EU, Business Finland (TEKES) or other public research funding bodies so we do not do administration for research which has been awarded funding by e.g. the Academy of Finland, government ministries, the University of Helsinki or other public bodies.

Grants are a researcher’s personal funding, and the researcher decides how these are to be used within the guidelines given by the awarding body. For grant-funded research projects, the Clinical Research Institute HUCH prepares the employment contracts for research groups, manage bookkeeping, and submits statutory notifications to the authorities.

When a researcher is using a grant to hire research group members, he or she is their employer. In addition the Clinical Research Institute HUCH handles the payment of purchase invoices and other research project expenses. The Financial Management Team sends the researcher reports on project income and expenses.

The grant coordinator answers grant related questions on:

• payment of the grant research team member
• employment issues
• pay and remuneration payment
• research purchase invoices
• balances, reports

Email for issues relating to grants:
ostolaskut.hyksinstituutti@hus.fi

Financial Administration Team
contact details

hyksinstituutti@hus.fi
– issues relating to sales invoices

palkat.hyksinstituutti@hus.fi
– issues relating to pay and remuneration

ostolaskut.hyksinstituutti@hus.fi
– issues relating to grants and purchase invoices

Research Services Team contact details

HYKSCoordinators@hus.fi
– issues relating to contacts with sponsors and researchers

We work with our partners to produce high-quality research services to find better and innovative solutions. Today’s research is tomorrow’s treatment.

The operations of the Clinical Research Institute HUCH are based on strong values

Clinical Research Institute HUCH Ltd
Biomedicum Helsinki 1
Haartmaninkatu 8
FI-00290 Helsinki