CZECRIN

Name: Czech National Node to the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network

Institution: Masaryk University

Coordinator: Assoc. Prof Regina Demlová, Ph.D., demlova@med.muni.cz

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CZECRIN is a distributed nationwide RI providing a stratified portfolio of services and research capacities for innovative clinical research and drug development primarily through non-commercial clinical trials and advanced education. Since 2020, CZECRIN’s comprehensive research and service strategy has been based on the vision towards patient-oriented medicine, in which the results of clinical studies help optimise the healthcare of patients, access to innovative medicinal products and medical devices. CZECRIN currently brings together nine large university hospitals and three specialized medical centres for oncology, psychiatric and haematology care, with a vision of possible expansion in the years 2023–2026. Priority areas of clinical research in medicine are implemented through branch-oriented networks, the so-called Disease-Oriented Networks. CZECRIN has expertise and technological capacities covering all stages of the drug/medical device life-cycle. In the medicines and medical devices R&I, it offers comprehensive services and expertise, including regulatory knowledge for the translation of preclinical experiments into the clinical part of development, for the area of clinical studies protocol writing, regulatory support, pharmacovigilance, the provision of complex biometrics through data management and biostatistical analyses, for the area of health technology assessment, expertise in the field of pharmacoeconomic and other professional analyses. CZECRIN has technological capacities in the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regime for R&I and the production of somatic cell medicinal products with the application potential of treating patients through non-commercially initiated clinical trials. CZECRIN is the Czech national node to ECRIN-ERIC (European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network), which is a distributed RI, a non-profit organisation connecting scientific partners and national RI networks across Europe, facilitating transnational clinical research and supporting the conduct of international clinical trials in Europe. ECRIN ERIC is a part of EU-AMRI (European Alliance of Medical Research Infrastructures) together with BBMRI-ERIC (Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium) and EATRIS ERIC (European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine). EU-AMRI was established in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic with the aim of establishing closer cooperation between EU Member States and facilitate researchers’ access to the resources and services of individual RIs to accelerate the development of diagnostics, vaccines and treatments.