European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network: promoting harmonisation and quality in European clinical research

Health and legislative systems in Europe fragment clinical research and dampen its competitiveness, reducing the capacity to enrol patients in clinical studies, increasing the costs of clinical research, and hampering scientific productivity. For academic infrastructures of clinical research and investigators doing multinational studies in Europe, fragmentation raises obstacles: national regulation, informed consent, ethical review, data monitoring, adverse events, insurance, costs, funding, training, and language are bottlenecks in the conduct of multinational studies.