The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has been awarded €2.5 million from the Health Research Board (HRB) for continued development of national clinical guidelines aimed at ensuring safer, better healthcare. 

The four-year award will fund the Centre in Ireland for Clinical guideline support and Evidence Reviews (CICER), a partnership comprising HIQA, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and clinical and methodological experts, until 2028.

CICER provides evidence to inform National Clinical Guidelines through the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC). The NCEC was established in 2010 by the Minister for Health and is supported by the Department of Health. It is responsible for assuring the quality of National Clinical Guidelines for use in healthcare in Ireland. 

These guidelines aim to promote healthcare that is current, effective and consistent, ensuring the best possible outcomes for patients. To achieve this, guidelines must be based on the best available scientific evidence and incorporate the budget impact of their implementation.

This award will build on research funding from a previous competitive process spanning the period from 2017 to 2024, during which CICER supported the development of National Clinical Guidelines to improve patient safety. 

During this new phase of the grant, CICER will aim to strengthen public and patient involvement throughout the guideline development process, and to foster additional national and international collaborations. 

Dr Máirín Ryan, HIQA’s Deputy CEO and Director of Health Technology Assessment, and CICER principal investigator, said: “Since its formation in 2017, CICER has provided rigorous methodological support to over a dozen National Clinical Guidelines, from diabetes care to sepsis. This new HRB grant supports us to continue our work, and I look forward to working with partners on synthesising up-to-date international evidence to inform crucial decisions for patients in Ireland.” 

Stacey Grealis, who is providing a patient voice to the work of CICER, welcomed the continuation of funding for CICER: “This will have such positive outcomes for the people of Ireland in the years to come. I look forward to fostering greater public and patient involvement in clinical guideline development and the recruitment of a panel to ensure greater public and patient voice in decision-making around clinical guidelines.”

Professor Susan Smith of TCD, who is clinical lead of the CICER programme, said: “CICER will continue to help in the development of evidence-based guidelines for clinical colleagues and will improve outcomes for our patients. CICER has an excellent track record in this area and will continue to innovate, contributing to the advancement of clinical guideline development internationally in the years ahead.” 

CICER is funded by the Health Research Board under grant number ESCG-2024-002.

ENDS

Further information:
Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement 085 805 5202 / mwhelan@hiqa.ie

• Notes to Editor:
  The Health Research Board (HRB) supports research that improves people’s health, patient care and health service delivery. HRB aims to ensure that new knowledge is created and used in policy and practice. In doing so, HRB supports health system innovation and creates new enterprise opportunities.
• In August 2023, HRB issued a call for organisations to bid to support clinical practice guideline development over a four-year period for a budget of €2.5 million. 
• Following on from the successful HRB-CICER grant, which funded CICER from 2017 to 2024, HIQA submitted an updated proposal to continue to support clinical guidelines and to advance practice in this area, through the competitive grant application process. Applications were reviewed by an independent international academic and public reviewer panel established by HRB. The grant was awarded to HIQA, as the host organisation for CICER, following approval of the panel’s recommendations by the board of HRB in May 2024.
• The 21-member co-applicant and collaborator CICER team represents a broad range of disciplines with extensive experience in areas such as evidence synthesis, health economics, evidence-based medicine, clinical guideline development, and patient and public involvement.