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Conducting Clinical Trials with UCalgary
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With world-class research capabilities, cutting-edge labs and facilities and an established suite of support services, the University of Calgary is home to one of the most dynamic clinical trial environments in Canada. Every year pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies from across the globe rely on our infrastructure to turn ideas into life-changing diagnostics, treatments and therapies.
Our long-standing commitment to working with industry partners is reinforced by the programs, services and knowledge we provide – all meant to enable and enhance clinical trials across a range of therapeutic areas. To provide support beyond trials, we draw on our entrepreneurial spirit and offer resources that help translate innovative ideas into market-ready companies and products. Every year, through our network of clinical, industry and business experts, we help bring dozens of new inventions, products and companies to market. Whether you’re developing a drug therapy for Alzheimer’s or a new medical device to monitor Diabetes, our integrated research site can provide the capabilities you need to drive your discoveries forward.
This page is meant to provide a landing point of access to the University of Calgary clinical trial ecosystem. As a collaboration between several research offices, our goal is to make it easier for research partners (including industry sponsors, academic institutions and government organizations) to connect with our capabilities and infrastructure to help advance their clinical trials.
For Industry
Every year, University of Calgary researchers partner with industry sponsors across a range of sectors to turn knowledge into breakthrough treatments. In fact, we’re one of Alberta’s busiest clinical trial sites, with over 200 trials conducted annually, involving patients from over 20 therapeutic areas. As a fully-integrated site, our industry partners have access to internationally recognized investigators, state-of-the-art research facilities and expert-driven services designed to accelerate phase I-IV studies.
We understand that ground-breaking research requires more than an infrastructure to succeed. They require clinical expertise, cross-departmental collaboration and access to research professionals with diverse methodological skillsets. As a leading academic research site, we’re able to offer this competitive edge to our industry partners. Our faculty, researchers and operational staff work side by side everyday with patients across multiple therapeutic areas; and our business accelerator teams help turn discoveries into startups, spinoffs and licensing agreements.
For Researchers
University of Calgary researchers have access to a full suite of support services that span the entire clinical trial lifecycle. These services are delivered by a network of support teams, offices and groups. Support is available for both industry-initiated and investigator-initiated studies.
Researchers interested in bringing their ideas to market can access a range of commercialization, pre- and post-market resources, including entrepreneurial and business development programming, mentorship opportunities, and more.
If you are looking resources or services to support your clinical trial, the best starting point is to explore the research resources provided by Research at UCalgary and the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM).
Clinical Trial Services
How can we help today?
If your organization is interested in learning more about our clinical trial capabilities/infrastructure, or if you’d like assistance connecting with our researchers or resources, we can help. Our Clinical Trials Navigator is the first point-of-contact, providing a centralized point of entry to engage with the University of Calgary clinical trial ecosystem.
Acting as a central point-of-contact, our Clinical Trial Navigator helps sponsors navigate and engage with the research ecosystem at the University of Calgary.
The Navigtaor can:
- Help interested parties connect to the resources, services and personnel required to move their research forward.
- Develop a personalized project-specific plan to help address administrative and regulatory challenges.
- Assist with identifying and connecting with investigators, facilities and recruitment channels.
- Facilitate the execution of all startup activities, contract reviews, budget negotiations and ethics/regulatory approvals.
- Foster relationships with academic and business units.
- Serve as a personalized consultant that coordinates the operational requirements of trials so you can focus on what’s most important – your research.
As one of Canada’s leading research institutions, The University of Calgary spurs knowledge and discoveries across a wide-range range of therapeutic areas. Every year we support the start-up and execution of hundreds of trials in the life sciences sector – resulting in new treatments and therapies that help improve the lives of patients around the world. Featuring a collaborative academic environment, dedicated research service offices, state-of-the-art labs and facilities and internationally recognized investigators, our integrated clinical trial ecosystem is designed to move research forward.
We’re constantly enhancing our already world-class clinical trial infrastructure. Each year, provincial and municipal governments provide extensive funding to support research projects, implement new technologies and enhance the skills of our research workforce. This is further complemented by research investment from the private sector, non-profit organizations and philanthropic donors.
Labs
Our industry research partners have access to a suite of state-of-the-art labs and facilities to support phase I-IV clinical trials across a range of therapeutic areas. Designated research facilities are located at the U of C Foothills Campus and patient care facilities are available at affiliated Alberta Health Services hospitals including the Foothills Medical Centre, one of most sought-after research sites in Alberta.
Facility highlights include:
- Dedicated inpatient and outpatient facilities
- On-site research pharmacies with extensive investigational drug storage capabilities
- State-of-the-art imaging centres
- Biobanks covering a range of tissue types and indications
- Genomic and precision medicine technologies
- Dedicated beds within the Foothills Medical Centre for studies requiring overnight stays or ICU-level care
Our Centres and Institutes are home to some of the world’s leading researchers and thought leaders, and can provide clinical knowledge, expertise and insights to enhance the planning and execution of clinical trials.
Our highly skilled research workforce provides a range of services to support industry-sponsored clinical trials. Comprised of principle investigators, research coordinators, site personnel and operational groups, our staff work in unison to enable research across a range of therapeutic areas and trial types. All staff receive extensive training and certification, including SPOR Pragmatic Clinical Trial Certification and Good Clinical Practice training.
In addition, our network of innovation and commercialization teams provide support beyond the end of a trial, helping transform ideas into market-ready solutions. Together, they’ve helped hundreds of researchers commercialize their work and bring new devices, diagnostics and technologies into the hands of consumers.
The University of Calgary has two research ethics boards, three animal care committees, and a biosafety committee. Human studies are overseen by: the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board (CHREB) and the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board (CFREB).
Board meetings occur on the first and third Thursday of each month. Contract and budget negotiations run in parallel with IRB reviews. On average, the length of time from ethics application submission to approval is 8 weeks.
For more information, visit:
Ethics and Compliance with Research Services and
Quality Assurance with CCCR
Regulatory support is available to:
Researchers: Calgary Centre for Clinical Research
Industry Sponsors : IMPACT with Innovate Calgary
Our experienced finance and legal teams provide services that help address the administrative challenges involved in conducting clinical trials. Combined, our teams have structured and put in place thousands of agreements and have provided extensive support in the areas of trial budgeting and billing.
CCCR Budget Team
The Calgary Centre of Clinical Research budget team is skilled in reviewing and developing accurate budgets for both industry sponsored and grant funded trials. The budget team negotiates trial budgets and payment terms with industry sponsors ensuring fiscally sound projects and fast budget review and approval.
Contact: cccr@ucalgary.ca
CSM Legal Team
For clinical trial agreements and non-disclosure agreements involving clinical trials:
Visit: Cumming School of Medicine Legal Research Services office (CSM Legal).
The University of Calgary’s clinical trial data and information technology (IT) solutions help improve study quality, budget management and regulatory compliance. Access to systems is available to researchers conducting both investigator initiated and industry-sponsored trials.
Systems and platforms include:
Our expansive recruitment abilities draw from one of Canada’s largest and most diverse patient populations. Combined with our close working relationship with Alberta Health Services (one of the largest integrated health care systems in the world), we’re able to help industry partners successfully reach recruitment targets - and do so faster.
UCalgary also hosts the Participate in Research webpage – a direct link between studies actively seeking participants through IRISS and the public. Participate in Research is a searchable database for community members to connect with researchers recruiting participants.
UCalgary believes in thinking creatively and courageously, and in doing research that has a positive impact on our communities at home and around the world. Our scholars conduct research studies and clinical trials in a vast range of disciplines, from MRIs to understand childhood brain development, to online surveys that help us understand how people interact on social media.
CTO Toolbox
Clinical Trial Management System:
OnCore
Electronic Data Capture Systems:
RedCap, RedCap Cloud, iDataFax
Regulatory Support System:
TRACR
Multi-site Integrated Ethics Platform:
REB Exchange
The Research Management System:
RMS