New International Initiative and Joint Task Force for Clinical Trials Competency has launched

EUPATI together with CANTRAIN and Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard (MRCT Center) have launched a new international initiative and joint task force for clinical trials competency.

The initiative, entitled “Co-Creating Clinical Research Competencies to Support Effective Patient Partner Engagement Activities,” unites a representative group of patient and caregiver partners, academic researchers and study staff, industry representatives, and others, to enhance the existing JTF Framework.

This new international collaboration aims to enhance patient engagement-related competencies to support clinical research. By strengthening the skills and knowledge of both patient partners and clinical research professionals, this initiative seeks to foster more meaningful collaboration in clinical trials.

We look forward to sharing updates over the course of the next year and the outcomes of this collaboration in 2026. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Read joint press release here.

More about:
The Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard
(MRCT Center). The MRCT Center is a research and policy center dedicated to improving the integrity, safety, and rigor of global clinical research. It functions as an independent convener to bring together stakeholders from industry, academia, advocacy groups, nonprofit
organizations, and regulatory agencies to define emerging issues in the conduct and oversight of clinical trials and to create and implement ethical, actionable, and practical solution. We engage patients and participants throughout all stages of our work. MRCT Center efforts have resulted in the implementation of improved clinical research practices, greater transparency, clearer communication, increased representation, and improved safety for research participants.

The Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency Framework (JTF)
The JTF is a Core Competency Framework for clinical research professionals that defines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for conducting safe, ethical, and high-quality clinical research. Since its publication in 2014, the JTF Framework has been enhanced to define the competencies at the Basic, Skilled and Advanced Levels and is offered in multiple translations. The JTF Framework has been utilized to define professional roles and performance evaluations, to define education and training requirements, certification criteria, and continuing professional development needs, and to facilitate regulatory compliance and quality improvement of the clinical research process.

The CANadian Consortium of Clinical Trial TRAINing (CANTRAIN)
The CANadian Consortium of Clinical Trial TRAINing platform (CANTRAIN), a CIHR funded national training platform, is dedicated to transforming how Canadians are prepared to develop, conduct, engage in, and benefit from clinical trials. CANTRAIN aims to enhance clinical trial competency through an efficient training environment that delivers cutting-edge, inclusive educational curricula tailored for students, clinical research professionals, trialists, and patient and community partners.

Patient engagement is at the core of CANTRAIN’s approach. We are leveraging patient engagement by embedding patient engagement throughout our training curriculum and co-developing the training curriculum with patient and community partners, to ensure evidence-based training that leads to better-prepared professionals and improved patient care.