{"entity":{"id":"idea-fund-trial-completion-bonus","kind":"idea","name":"Pay investigators for finishing and publishing trials, not for enrolling patients","aka":[],"tldr":"Trial sites are paid per patient recruited, so nobody is paid to finish the study or report the answer. Shift part of the payment to completion and publication within a year.","summary":"Sponsors and public funders restructure site and investigator payments so that a meaningful share (for example 25%) is held back and paid on completion of follow-up, database lock and public results posting within twelve months of the primary completion date, with a further bonus for peer-reviewed publication of negative results. Academic centres pass this through to investigator research accounts. Trial non-reporting remains common years after completion, and academic trials in particular stall in analysis and writing because the incentive ends with the last patient.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"EU Trials Tracker","url":"https://eu.trialstracker.net/"}],"tags":[],"related":["clinicaltrials-gov","eudract-ctis","idea-fund-academic-promotion-reform","idea-fund-programme-officer-incentives"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-incentive-misalignment","b-negative-results","b-trial-enrolment"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Completion- and reporting-linked payments raise the share of trials with results posted within twelve months of primary completion from the current minority to above 80% at participating sites, and reduce the analysis-to-publication interval by at least six months.","rationale":"Results reporting rose sharply where enforcement existed (the FDA Amendments Act compliance improved once penalties were publicised; the EU trials tracker shamed institutions into action). Money attached to the milestone is a stronger and cheaper lever than penalties.","test":"A public funder applies the payment structure to all trials in one funding round and compares reporting timeliness with the previous round.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"clinic","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-fund-trial-completion-bonus/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"clinicaltrials-gov","kind":"collection","name":"ClinicalTrials.gov","route":"/collections/clinicaltrials-gov/"},{"id":"eudract-ctis","kind":"collection","name":"EU Clinical Trials Register / CTIS","route":"/collections/eudract-ctis/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-fund-open-results-bonus","kind":"idea","name":"Funder bonuses for releasing results and data within six months, negatives included","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-open-results-bonus/"},{"id":"idea-fund-programme-officer-incentives","kind":"idea","name":"Judge funding programme officers on burden alignment and trials completed","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-programme-officer-incentives/"},{"id":"idea-fund-academic-promotion-reform","kind":"idea","name":"Promote academics for trials completed, data shared and findings replicated","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-academic-promotion-reform/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-negative-results","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Failures are hidden","route":"/bottlenecks/b-negative-results/"},{"id":"b-incentive-misalignment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains","route":"/bottlenecks/b-incentive-misalignment/"},{"id":"b-trial-enrolment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials enrol too few, too slowly","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/"}]}}