Looking for better solutions?
We promote dialogue between stakeholders.

Associate member

The SCTO is an independent organisation and is based on a joint initiative of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.

As of 2017, the SCTO is a research infrastructure of national importance funded by the State Secretariat of Education, Research and Innovation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

SCTO Platforms

Innovative solutions for clinical research professionals

Our platforms create a nationwide network of experts. Platform members develop tools and provide practical solutions for daily work in academic clinical research. They also serve as a first point of contact for other clinical research professionals and for authorities. Our SCTO Platforms focus on the following key areas of clinical research:

auditing
data management
education
monitoring
project management
regulatory affairs
safety
statistics and methodology.

Currently, our platforms’ strategic priority is to develop tools and resources for clinical research governed by Switzerland’s Human Research Ordinance (HRO), which includes observational studies and research on existing data and samples.

The SCTO Platforms have their own website: Tools & Resources

Our platforms’ Tools & Resources website is continually updated and expanded with additional tools, so it’s worth visiting regularly! Visit www.sctoplatforms.ch.


Who is behind the platforms?

Each Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) of our CTU Network coordinates a platform, and each platform includes staff from all CTUs. In addition, the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) is actively involved in the platforms. Our scientific coordinators ensure efficient collaboration between individual platforms and liaise between the platforms and our Executive Office.

To find out more about our platforms, please consult the fact sheet below.


Events

SCTO Platforms Event 2022: Improving the CTU Network communication

In 2017, the Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) Network of the SCTO established thematic platforms with the overall goal of promoting exchange among experts and of developing tools that will foster a high-quality clinical research infrastructure in Switzerland.

Five years on, the SCTO platforms held their second joint event on the overall theme of communication, attended by more than 75 collaborators from the CTU Network. The goal of the event was to improve and optimise our communication around the platforms’ products. Together, we reflected on ways to explain to our stakeholders what our platforms’ products are, why they are needed and how we can convey our message in clear words.

A short report on the event can be found on our Tools & Resources Website.

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events

SCTO Platforms Event 2020: Yielding a bumper harvest

On 14 January 2020, three years after the CTU Network first established thematic platforms, members of all the platforms held their first joint event in Bern. The event, dedicated to the exchange and the presentation of the projects and products of the individual platforms, brought together over 70 collaborators from the CTU Network.

The morning “marketplace” enabled each of the nine platforms to showcase their activities to one another. The afternoon was dedicated to INQUIRE, a quality framework initiated by the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, intended to optimise patient-oriented clinical research. In the workshop that followed, the participants discussed how this quality framework can be ploughed into their daily activities and projects.

A short report and photos of the day are available below.

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