On November 20th 2018, Ireland became full members of the ECRIN, a not-for-profit intergovernmental organisation that supports the conduct of multi-national clinical research in Europe. Ireland’s membership of ECRIN will bring the number of full members to nine – France, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Switzerland, Poland and Slovakia have observer status.
Established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), ECRIN is a distributed organisation, with a core office in Paris and a network of Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) across the partner countries. Each member country has a scientific partner which houses the ECRIN European Correspondents. The scientific partner for ECRIN in Ireland is the HRB Clinical Research Coordination Ireland (HRB-CRCI) and the European Correspondents for Ireland are Dr Suzanne Bracken and Fiona Cregg. HRB-CRCI is an independent integrated national clinical research network, providing centralised support in the conduct of multicentre clinical research (both commercial and academic) across Ireland. This network consists of the HRB-CRCI central office, based in Clinical Research Development Ireland (CRDI) and the partner University Clinical Research Facilities/Centres across Ireland.As a member of ECRIN, Irish researchers can benefit from a full range of ECRIN services for multinational clinical research study preparation, protocol evaluation and study management. A summary of the supports available can be accessed here, and Irish researchers working in academic-led clinical research are encouraged to get in touch with the Irish European Correspondents to see what further services/supports could be available via ECRIN.
ECRIN is currently supporting 35 multi-national clinical trials, two of which are being coordinated by Irish Principal Investigators, CONVINCE and POPART.
- CONVINCE (Colchicine for prevention of Vascular Inflammation in Non-CardioEmbolic stroke) is an interventional clinical trial testing low dose colchicine versus standard of care. Colchicine is a drug used for many years to treat gout and other joint disorders. CONVINCE is led by Prof Peter Kelly, Consultant Stroke Neurologist, Mater University Hospital and University College Dublin.
- POPART (Prophylactic oropharyngeal surfactant for preterm infants: a randomised trial) is an interventional study aimed at finding a better way to help premature babies who have breathing difficulties. Led by Prof. Colm O’Donnell, Neonatologist at the National Maternity Hospital and University College Dublin (UCD), POPART is half-way through enrolling 250 babies across 6 European countries (Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Czech Republic & Portugal).
If you are interested in learning more about ECRIN, or availing of the opportunities available to Irish researchers, please contact the ECRIN European Correspondents for Ireland: fiona.cregg@hrb-crci.ie or suzanne.bracken@hrb-crci.ie.
