{"entity":{"id":"idea-fund-global-academic-phase-one-network","kind":"idea","name":"A global first-in-human network for academic cancer trials with single ethics review","aka":[],"tldr":"Academic first-in-human cancer trials recruit slowly because each hospital repeats ethics and regulatory review. Twenty to thirty academic phase 1 units across Europe, North America and Asia would share protocol templates, one mutually recognised review, a joint safety committee and harmonised contracts, so a trial opens at every site within weeks and rare molecular subtypes can be pooled.","summary":"Twenty to thirty academic phase 1 oncology units across Europe, North America and Asia agree common protocols templates, a single mutually-recognised ethics and scientific review, a shared safety committee and harmonised contracts, so an academic first-in-human trial approved by the network opens at all sites within weeks. The EU Clinical Trials Regulation and US single-IRB rules already allow much of this; the missing part is an organisation that operates it for academic sponsors. The network also concentrates rare molecular subtypes and rare cancers, where single-site academic trials never accrue.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (The valley of death between lab and product): Butler, Translational research: crossing the valley of death (Nature 2008)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/453840a"}],"tags":[],"related":["idea-fund-public-nonprofit-cro","idea-fund-translational-institutes-gmp"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["curie-nki-eortc"],"institutions":["royal-marsden","gustave-roussy","mskcc"],"pathways":[],"terms":["basket-umbrella-platform"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-translational-valley","b-regulatory-fragmentation","b-trial-enrolment"],"keyPapers":["paper-butler-nature"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Academic first-in-human trials run through the network accrue at least three times faster than comparable single-institution academic trials and reach a recommended phase 2 dose within eighteen months in the majority of cases.","rationale":"Industry phase 1 trials open globally through CRO networks; academic ones do not, and rare-cancer academic trials routinely close for slow accrual. The EORTC and the Children's Oncology Group show that academic multinational early-phase trials work when infrastructure is shared.","test":"Run five academic first-in-human trials through a pilot network of ten units and compare activation time and accrual rate with matched single-centre trials.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"regulator","cost":"medium","horizonYears":4},"route":"/ideas/idea-fund-global-academic-phase-one-network/","neighbours":{"idea":[{"id":"idea-fund-public-nonprofit-cro","kind":"idea","name":"A national non-profit contract research organisation for academic oncology trials","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-public-nonprofit-cro/"},{"id":"idea-fund-academic-sponsor-indemnity-pool","kind":"idea","name":"A public indemnity pool so universities can sponsor first-in-human cancer trials","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-academic-sponsor-indemnity-pool/"},{"id":"idea-fund-translational-institutes-gmp","kind":"idea","name":"Regional translational institutes with academic GMP suites and IND teams","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-translational-institutes-gmp/"}],"company":[{"id":"curie-nki-eortc","kind":"company","name":"EORTC","route":"/companies/curie-nki-eortc/"}],"institution":[{"id":"gustave-roussy","kind":"institution","name":"Gustave Roussy","route":"/institutions/gustave-roussy/"},{"id":"mskcc","kind":"institution","name":"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/mskcc/"},{"id":"royal-marsden","kind":"institution","name":"The Royal Marsden","route":"/institutions/royal-marsden/"}],"term":[{"id":"basket-umbrella-platform","kind":"term","name":"Basket, umbrella, and platform trials","route":"/terms/basket-umbrella-platform/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-regulatory-fragmentation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Regulatory divergence between regions","route":"/bottlenecks/b-regulatory-fragmentation/"},{"id":"b-translational-valley","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The valley of death between lab and product","route":"/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/"},{"id":"b-trial-enrolment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials enrol too few, too slowly","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-butler-nature","kind":"paper","name":"Translational research: crossing the valley of death","route":"/key-papers/paper-butler-nature/"}]}}