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Signature Series speakers took on more of the clinical research enterprise’s “big picture” topics at ACRP 2025 on Saturday, focusing on the implications for clinical trials teams of the recently updated ICH E6(R3) Guideline for Good Clinical Practice, and on how seasoned professionals are enacting meaningful change in their organizations for the betterment of trial implementation and management.

With recent federal actions upending business as usual for many stakeholders in the clinical research enterprise, some of its thought leaders pondered the big question of “Where does clinical research go from here?” during Friday’s (April 25) first Signature Series gathering at ACRP 2025 in New Orleans.

At the latest meeting of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP)-led Partners Advancing the Clinical Research Workforce (PACRW) consortium, the focus for these extraordinary times in human subjects research was on what levers need to be pulled by the consortium’s members to “bend the curve” toward a better future for stakeholders in what is often an under-recognized and under-resourced segment of the larger healthcare workforce. 

As the theme of this year’s ACRP Clinical Trials Day program celebrates, we are collectively powered by purpose; yet, we are often distracted from it as inefficiencies in how we collaborate bog us down in our day-to-day. According to Advarra’s 2024 Site-Sponsor-CRO Collaboration Survey, less than half of sites said their relationship with sponsors is collaborative, and just 31% said they had a collaborative relationship with CROs.

Technology has undeniably contributed to growing chaos at research sites. Seventy percent of sites report using more than six systems per trial, and for the first time, managing these systems is their top challenge. The impact is significant: 52% of sites are struggling to take on new studies, and sponsors are seeing a 45% increase in timelines from protocol approval to first-patient-first-visit.