ECRIN helps sponsors and investigators conducting multicentre, multinational trials to overcome the challenges of diverse and country-specific regulatory and administrative landscapes. ECRIN is a distributed research infrastructure – a network of networks that connects research facilities at multiple sites in countries across Europe and provides services for top-level clinical research. Collaboration with ECRIN provides multiple advantages including full access to ECRIN management and consultancy services. Moreover, this infrastructure creates added value through access to expertise and patients, thereby increasing the reach, diversity and quality of clinical trials.

The SCTO has been chosen by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to represent Switzerland in the ECRIN consortium. The ECRIN European Correspondent (EuCo) for Switzerland is based at the SCTO and coordinates fee-based services and support for scientific partner institutions nationally and internationally.

The Swiss EuCo has provided advice, support and logistical feasibility assessments with costing of services to several clinical research project applications under FP6&7 and H2020 framework funding. The Swiss CTU network has also provided services to studies conducted with the assistance of ECRIN, mainly by supporting regulatory approval processes and/or study monitoring. Furthermore, the SCTO and the CTU network have contributed to and participated in several ECRIN working groups and workshops, including a risk-based management toolbox, contracting, a regulatory database, international funding, tools for clinical research, annual meetings and EuCo summer schools, such as the Summer School 2013 in Basel.

Learn more about ECRIN Campus for regulatory and ethical requirements.