Trial Deck, the Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS) and Electronic Data Capture (EDC) suite from Global Initiative Ltd, is supporting GlobalMinds, a major NHS backed study recruiting people living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis and severe depression across England and Wales. A  recruitment arm will also enrol a cohort with dementia through dedicated dementia recruitment routes.

GlobalMinds is recruiting at a scale rarely seen in mental health research. From this week, almost 50,000 eligible adults in England and Wales are being invited to take part. Researchers will analyse DNA alongside detailed questionnaires, linking genetic data from blood or saliva samples with digital responses and relevant NHS medical record information to create what the programme describes as the most detailed dataset yet on serious mental health conditions.

Dr Adrian James, NHS England’s National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, said:
“This major new study could transform our understanding of severe mental illness and lead to the dawn of a new era of personalised treatments for patients with conditions including schizophrenia and severe depression.”

GlobalMinds is designed to support participation at home, with sampling kits provided to participants, alongside targeted NHS support for those who are more severely ill or who face barriers to using technology. Ten NHS mental health trusts are already supporting the project, with recruitment initially in England and Wales and expansion planned internationally.

Professor James Walters, GlobalMinds Chief Investigator at Cardiff University, said:
“GlobalMinds provides an unprecedented opportunity to uncover and identify the many personal and biological factors behind mental health conditions, so researchers can help clinicians and patients by enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis, and making available optimum treatments for all patients.”

Trial Deck is providing the clinical trial management system and electronic data capture capability for the study, supporting participant sign up, eConsent, questionnaire delivery, and secure operational workflows. Alongside the platform delivery, Global Initiative provided extensive implementation support to facilitate rapid mobilisation, including study configuration, participant journey set up, content and questionnaire build, operational readiness inputs, and responsive iteration with the study team as recruitment pathways and requirements evolved. This support helped ensure the digital experience could scale quickly while remaining governed, accessible, and aligned with the programme’s delivery model. Trial Deck is designed to support the rapid roll out of studies in line with government recruitment directives of 150 days from launch to first participant, enabling sponsors and delivery partners to mobilise quickly without compromising participant experience or governance.

Global Initiative also supported the study’s internet presence, designing and developing two participant facing websites to inform and support potential participants pre-enrolment.

Chris Sinclair, Co-Founder and COO of Global Initiative, said:
"GlobalMinds shows what is possible when you treat digital delivery as core research infrastructure, enabling a study of this scale to mobilise quickly while keeping governance, participant experience, and operational control front and centre. Enabling that level of impact at international scale is exactly what we want Trial Deck to deliver.”

GlobalMinds is led by Akrivia Health Ltd in partnership with Cardiff University, with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and funding from the Wellcome Trust and Johnson and Johnson. The charity Rethink Mental Illness is supporting the study to raise awareness and help ensure lived experience remains central to the programme.

About GlobalMinds
GlobalMinds is a three-year study led by Akrivia Health Ltd in partnership with Cardiff University. It is launched in England and Wales initially and will expand internationally. The study combines genetic information from blood or saliva samples with digital questionnaire responses and relevant NHS medical record data to improve understanding of serious mental health conditions and enable more personalised diagnosis and treatment.

About Trial Deck
Trial Deck by Global Initiative Ltd is an integrated clinical research software suite that combines CTMS, EDC, and eConsent with other mission critical tools in a single platform. It supports rapid study set up and secure delivery at scale, including participant enrolment, questionnaire based data capture, operational workflows, and audit and reporting.

Trial Deck is internationalisation ready, with time zone control and multi lingual capability, and includes a digital intervention builder for configurable participant facing content where required by study design. Trial Deck is used by widely recognised Clinical Trials Units in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Core capabilities include:

• CTMS for end to end study operations, sites, roles, workflows, and auditability

• EDC for high volume, structured questionnaire data capture and export

• eConsent and participant onboarding within the same governed environment

• Digital intervention builder for configurable participant facing content and journeys

• API led integrations to support external services such as sampling logistics and messaging

Global Initiative Ltd (Trial Deck)
Email: enquiries@trial-deck.com
Phone: +44(0)1865 203 100
Website: www.trial-deck.com