Table 3.

Reported characteristics of the ideal clinical trial site

Characteristic theme	Characteristics sub-theme	Example quotes
Enabling environment	▪ Positive research culture ▪ Executive support and investment ▪ Research a priority in strategic plan ▪ Supportive and knowledgeable departments ▪ Embedded research into core services	“You need a culture that’s supportive of clinical trials. […] it can be either the culture within the unit, all the way up to, you know, having research as a strategic game of the bigger organization […] you know, people setting the direction, handing out the resources or agreeing that clinical trials are really important and that then links up all the way down to the specialty, the specialist teams.” (Health Service 14)
Experienced and engaged team	▪ Multidisciplinary team ▪ Trained, experienced and engaged staff ▪ PI with interest, experience and capacity	“A champion PI, who is invested in the trial, who sees trials and research at his site as a business to offer patients better care or different care or what additional care. They’ve got to see it as a business because they have to pay their staff out of the research budget.” (Industry 3)
Efficient research processes	▪ High-quality data ▪ Quick participant recruitment ▪ Efficient processes ▪ Minimal errors	“For investigator-initiated trials you need to be efficient because you are, you know, working off the smell of an oily rag or you need to be efficient because the way that you’re going to continue to attract commercially sponsored trials is by offering value for money.” (Industry 14)
Appropriate physical capacity	▪ Calibrated equipment readily available ▪ Access to services with capacity ▪ Physical space ▪ IT and software infrastructure	“We have a clinical research facility here with everything that we would need, so, you know, independent rooms, equipment, medical imaging. We have reception, we have waiting rooms and, you know, we’re not improvising.” (Industry 12)

PI, principal investigator