Nucleus Network reshapes clinical trial recruitment with Agentforce.

Scale recruitment for clinical research and enhance participant experience.

Early-phase clinical trials are essential for establishing the safety and optimal dosage of new, life-saving medicines, but recruiting and retaining participants can be difficult. High candidate attrition is common because of rigorous screening and eligibility criteria, and personalised engagement is important for building trust and retention.

As Nucleus Network scaled its global operations and trials grew increasingly complex, the organisation sought to enhance the participant experience. “Any incremental improvements we can make to guide participants further along their journey can make a material impact,” said Jeremy Collins, Chief Digital Officer, Nucleus Network.

At the same time, Nucleus Network needed to ramp up recruitment. Historically, pre-screening depended on recruiters being available during business hours, and much of the general trial participation and logistical information participants needed—including whether there was a general eligibility match, participation duration and dates, and remuneration schedules—could only be communicated during call centre screening calls.

Agentforce scales pre-screening and participant support.

To overcome these challenges, Nucleus Network has deployed a unified Salesforce solution, with Data 360 at its core and Agentforce automation built directly into the recruitment journey. At the centre is NORA—the Nucleus Online Recruitment Assistant—an AI-powered agent delivering round-the-clock pre-screening and participant support.

Those interested in participating in a research trial can chat to NORA on the Nucleus Network website. After confirming a potential participant’s age, NORA asks them a series of questions about their health and medical history to assess eligibility for any upcoming trials. NORA can also answer common questions about time commitment and safety, giving participants the information they need in real time, 24/7.

Once pre-screening is complete, NORA immediately matches qualified candidates to relevant trials and routes them to the recruitment team or schedules a callback. Recruitment specialists receive full context of the agent interaction directly inside Sales Cloud, helping them streamline follow-up calls and finalise recruitment faster. By automating initial general screening checks and routine inquiries, Nucleus Network aims to reduce average call handling times by 23% whilst improving screening-to-dosing conversion rates, with NORA-introduced participants being better informed and matched to active trials.

As clinical trials require strict regulatory compliance, NORA operates within deterministic guardrails. This ensures that specific health questions are asked accurately and tracked reliably, providing complete auditability while preventing unscripted or non-compliant AI responses.

Agentic marketing powers personalised engagement at scale.

Nucleus Network’s innovation with NORA builds on an earlier digital transformation which eliminated silos and unified participant data in Data 360.

With Marketing Cloud, Nucleus Network can activate this data to deliver more tailored experiences across multiple marketing touchpoints. For example, instead of sending generic email blasts, the organisation can send individuals specific educational content and trial recommendations based on their profiles.

Additionally, if a prospective participant views a trial page on the website but leaves without completing a registration form, they can be served a personalised banner upon returning that prompts them to take the next step. This could be followed by an automated re-engagement email campaign to guide them back into the funnel.

Beyond improving engagement, unifying participant data allows Nucleus Network to mitigate risk while expanding its global business. For example, with a clear, real-time view of candidate volume and study-matching capacity, the organisation can confidently accept new clinical trials from pharmaceutical sponsors, knowing it has the participant pool required to deliver on schedule.

Life Sciences Cloud to power the next evolution of clinical trial recruitment.

Nucleus Network is now preparing for its next phase of innovation. The organisation plans to expand NORA’s capabilities to support additional administrative workloads, such as participant appointment rescheduling, further enhancing call centre efficiency and allowing teams to focus on providing a more personalised experience for participants.

Nucleus Network has also recently deployed Life Sciences Cloud, starting with its London facility. Together with the developing additional capabilities in NORA and personalised agentic experiences, this will give the organisation the scalable foundation needed to rapidly launch new trials, streamline clinical workflows, and deliver a consistent, participant-centric experience.

Nucleus Network achieved rapid deployment through a deliberate, business-first discovery process alongside implementation partner OSF Digital. To ensure technology choices served operational goals, the marketing team conducted its initial discovery separately from IT, then regrouped as a joint team. This separation let business leaders define ideal data and engagement goals without technical constraints, while IT mapped data requirements and governance.

Working with OSF Digital, Nucleus Network went live with NORA in four months.

Salesforce gives Nucleus Network a unified platform that unlocks the value of participant data and AI agents for clinical research organisations. Its industry-specific data models and dedicated life sciences capabilities enable a more personalised, differentiated experience for every trial participant.

With the Salesforce Trust Layer, the platform also delivers the privacy, security, and guardrails that medical research demands, helping protect participant information and keep AI within Nucleus Network's compliance standards.