{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr1-national-master-trial-agreement","kind":"idea","name":"One national master contract and budget template for all cancer trials","aka":[],"tldr":"Contract negotiation between a hospital and a drug company often takes longer than the trial's first patient. A single pre-agreed contract and budget template, used by everyone, would cut months off opening a trial.","summary":"A government or national research body publishes a non-negotiable model clinical trial agreement (the UK's model agreements and Accelerated Clinical Trial Agreement are precedents) plus a standard per-procedure budget schedule. Sites and sponsors that adopt it skip legal negotiation; adopters are listed publicly and public funders require adoption. Extend the same to a standard data-sharing clause and a standard indemnity.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative","url":"https://ctti-clinicaltrials.org/"}],"tags":[],"related":["clinicaltrials-gov","eudract-ctis"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["cruk","nci"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-trial-enrolment","b-regulatory-fragmentation"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Countries or networks adopting a mandatory model agreement will reduce median site activation time by at least 60 days and increase the number of sites opened per trial.","rationale":"UK sites using the model agreement report shorter set-up; the variance in contracts adds cost without protecting anyone. Standardisation of routine legal instruments has worked in property, finance and open-source licensing.","test":"Compare median site activation time and sites-per-trial in networks before and after mandatory adoption, using registry-recorded activation dates.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"policy","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr1-national-master-trial-agreement/","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/"}],"institution":[{"id":"cruk","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK","route":"/institutions/cruk/"},{"id":"nci","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Institute (NIH)","route":"/institutions/nci/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-regulatory-fragmentation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Regulatory divergence between regions","route":"/bottlenecks/b-regulatory-fragmentation/"},{"id":"b-trial-enrolment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials enrol too few, too slowly","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/"}]}}