As mandated
by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the SCTO coordinates activities that
implement the ideas in the national roadmap for developing the future
generation of clinical researchers.
Via its
Education Platform, the SCTO’s Executive Office is currently leading and
coordinating two work packages that are crucial to harmonising and standardising
the development of a globally competitive clinical research workforce:
- Define clinical research core competences (CRCC) for sub-investigators, investigators, and sponsor-investigators. Since clinical research is a team effort, CRCC for other clinical research specialists will follow.
- Develop a web portal facilitating the path to clinical research careers in Switzerland, which will be called Clinical Research Careers (CR-Careers.ch). This platform is a collaboration between the SCTO, the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, and unimedsuisse. It will combine information on training, career support instruments, funding, mentoring, and core competencies, thereby assisting and orienting young clinicians interested in pursuing a clinical research career. The platform’s launch is anticipated for autumn 2021. In the next step, other clinical research specialists will be considered as well.