The SCTO Platforms develop practical tools for the academic clinical research community in Switzerland and beyond. Visit their new website: www.sctoplatforms.ch.

The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) will directly fund researchers and innovators in Switzerland whose participation in approved collaborative and individual projects under Horizon Europe is not funded by the European Commission. Funding requests can be submitted to SERI on an ongoing basis via a web form.

For more information, visit the SERI website:
Swiss Transitional Measures for Horizon Europe – Direct Funding
Guide for Swiss participants in collaborative projects 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) are launching a pilot project to support the repurposing of medicines. The aim of this initiative is to support not-for-profit organisations and academia to gather or generate sufficient evidence on the use of an established medicine in a new indication with the view to have this new use formally authorised by a regulatory authority. This is a way of making new treatment options available to patients.

Repurposing of medicines for COVID-19 falls outside the scope of this pilot project as there is a separate framework for these products.

Sponsors and investigators conducting multicentre, multinational trials in Switzerland can find more information on EMA’s website: Repurposing of authorised medicines: pilot to support not-for-profit organisations and academia

Thanks to the use of innovative technologies in clinical trials, study visits no longer necessarily have to be carried out in the hospital, but can also take place decentrally at home. With their patient-centred approach, these so-called decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) bring new opportunities but also pose new challenges for all those involved.

In a position paper, Swissmedic and swissethics summarised the main current challenges of DCTs with medicinal products and show under which conditions such clinical trials could be conducted in Switzerland.

The paper is addressed to researchers and sponsors as well as all those interested in clinical research.

Decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) with medicinal products in Switzerland

Peter Meier-Abt, President of the SCTO and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) for many years, passed away in May. In the next Bulletin the SAMS will publish a tribute to this tireless spokesman for science. It was written jointly with the Swiss Personalised Health Network and the SCTO, two institutions that he has significantly shaped.

The full version of the article can be found on the SAMS' website:
In memoriam: Peter Meier-Abt

What does publicly funded clinical research need to increase its benefit for patients and society? The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences' (SAMS) White Paper Clinical Research presents a roadmap with seven goals to strengthen the impact of clinical research in Switzerland. It suggests ways on how to use resources more efficiently and how to align efforts on common priorities.

The SCTO supports a common vision and approach to strengthen patient-centred clinical research in Switzerland and will actively participate in the implementation of the measures.

Links:

• White Paper Clinical Research
• SAMS website: Project White Paper Clinical Research

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), in collaboration with Innosuisse, launched the call for proposals for the federal programme to promote research, development and production of COVID- 19 medicinal products on 19 July 2021. Eligible companies, universities and hospitals can submit their projects on the Innosuisse website until 16 August 2021.

Federal funding programme for COVID-19 medicinal products

Are you involved in a patient and public involvement (PPI) project or are you aware of such an initiative? Together with our partner organisations, we identify and characterise local and national PPI initiatives in the academic environment. The results of the survey will be presented as a mapping of all identified PPI initiatives/projects and provide a solid basis of the status quo in Switzerland.

Survey Patient and Public Involvement in Clinical Research

Following the SCTO’s recent publication of a fact sheet on patient and public involvement (PPI), a practical guide for researchers is now available. It aims to help researchers who are planning a clinical research project and seeking potential funding find appropriate ways to ensure effective and meaningful PPI in their clinical trials.

The guide is an orientation aid and is not intended to provide comprehensive instructions on how to implement PPI. Both the guide and the fact sheet on patient and public involvement (PPI) were prepared in close collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Guide for researchers to address PPI in clinical trials

A new website centralises information for academics and industry on access to the three large Pan-European adaptive platform trials currently underway: DisCoVeRy, EU-SolidAct & REMAP-CAP.

The website was launched by the coordination module of the EU-funded projects RECOVER and EU-RESPONSE that allows them to evaluate potential therapeutics for COVID-19, while avoiding duplications and maximising the use of resources.

Links:

• Visit the new website (in Englisch): Coordination and Access for European COVID-19 Adaptive Platform Trials 
• More information on adaptive platform trials (APTs) and the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) is available on ECRIN’s website: Launch of European Covid-19 trials coordination module website

Click through our tree of achievements in our interactive 4-Year Report to see how we continue to build on a solid foundation and how we work together as a decentralised network to shape the future of clinical research in Switzerland.

SCTO 2017–2020: The fruits of our work

With our new, user-friendly website, our platforms’ practical tools and resources are even more accessible for your day-to-day work. The website will be continually updated and expanded with additional tools, so it’s worth visiting regularly!

Visit www.sctoplatforms.ch

Together with Bern University Hospital, the University of Bern, and sitem-insel AG (Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine), the SCTO is holding its 10th symposium on 8 June 2021. Our online event is dedicated to the topic of medical devices: from clinical development to registration and market access.

Additional breakout session: Submissions to ethics committees: New processes and synchronisation

The breakout sessions during the lunch break will give participants the chance to learn more about topics specific to Switzerland.

You may register online 2 June. The programme is available on our page Symposium 2021.

The SCTO has published a fact sheet on on patient and public involvement (PPI). It was prepared in close collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and is currently available in English.

Fact sheet on patient and public involvement (PPI)

At its General Assembly on 13 April 2021, the Steering Board of the SCTO unanimously re-elected Prof. Christiane Pauli-Magnus as President of the SCTO. Prof. Pauli-Magnus is Co-Head of the Department of Clinical Research and Head of the Clinical Trial Unit at the University Hospital Basel.

Furthermore, two new Steering Board members were elected for the funding period 2021– 2024: Prof. Mauro Oddo was elected new representative of the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), replacing Prof. Manuel Pascual, and Prof. Thomas Geiser was elected representative of the University Hospital (Inselspital) Bern, replacing Prof. Matthias Gugger.

We wish to express our warm thanks to Prof. Pauli-Magnus for her continued and active commitment and we also sincerely thank Prof. Manuel Pascual and Prof. Matthias Gugger for their longstanding and dedicated support of the SCTO projects.

On 8 June 2021, the SCTO is organising its 10th Symposium together with Bern University Hospital, the University of Bern, and sitem-insel AG (Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine). Our online event is dedicated to the topic of medical devices: from clinical development to certification and market access.

You may register online 25 May. The latest draft of the programme is available on our page Symposium 2021.

For the seventh time, the ​Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is launching a call for clinical studies on topics that are outside the industry focus.

Applicants must submit a letter of intent (LOI) via mySNF by 25 May 2021. The platform will be open to researchers as of 1 April 2021.

Participation requirements Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials (IICT)

In their fifth call, Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) will support doctoral student (iDoc Projects) and postdoc (TPdF Projects) projects bridging the two areas science/engineering and medicine. In addition, Technology Translation Projects (TTP) aim to bring technologies developed in the institutions of the ETH Domain into direct clinical utility.

The submission deadline for the proposals of this fifth call is 15 May 2021.

For more information about the call and about Personalized Health and Related Technologies, visit the PHRT’s website.

SCTO Forum goes digital! The diverse and compact presentations from the digital SCTO Forum 2021 on 27 January 2021 are now available online.

Learn how national experts, such as Swiss National Councillor Yvonne Feri and researcher Silvia Stringhini, illuminate the forum’s topic from different angles. In addition, you can listen to the keynote presentation of Annabelle South, Policy & Research Impact Coordinator at the British Medical Research Council, to receive an overview of current evidence for how knowledge transfer can be achieved, including practical examples and recommendations.

The podcasts are available in English or German.

Links:
Podcasts SCTO Forum 2021 on Vimeo
Programme SCTO Forum 2021 on our website

For older news please see our news archives 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.