HRB Clinical Research Coordination Ireland

Clinical Research Facilities and Centres (CRF/Cs) have been developed in each of the five applicant universities, providing the infrastructure and specialist staff to facilitate collaborative research but they lack an overarching support structure with which to coordinate multicentre clinical trial activities. One key exception is oncology where the All Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group (ICORG) through provision of independent centralised coordination demonstrates the success that can be obtained within Ireland through provision of an independently funded, legally constituted central coordination and signposting service.
CRCI will provide similar networked centralised services to Irish (clinical research and) trials in areas outside of oncology as has been routinely available for over a decade in many of our neighbouring, competitor countries. CRCI will be based on a hub and spoke model with the hub represented by a Central Office and the spokes being the five Applicant Universities CRF/Cs. The Central Office will be located in a host organisation in Dublin and will be staffed by a Chief Operations Officer, Clinical Trial Liaison Officer, Quality Manager and Clinical Industry Liaison Officer-Medical Devices; the host organisation will provide corporate support services. The required peripheral staff within each spoke CRF/C will be seconded on a part time basis to CRCI.
CRCI requires a robust governance structure that can ensure goal alignment, conflict resolution and the fair allocation of resources across partners. This will be provided by the a Senior Management Team (SMT) that will hold meetings bimonthly or more often as necessary and will consist of the five CRF/C Directors, the CRCI Chief Operations Officer and a representative from the Corporate Support Services.

Award Date: 27 March 2015
Award Value: €2324982.00
Principal Investigator: Professor Joseph Eustace
Host Institution: Molecular Medicine Ireland
Scheme: HRB Clinical Research Coordination Ireland