Dr. Darrin Morrissey:

From a research funder's perspective, it is important to say that we are open to everyone with qualifications to come in and we run programmatic calls so, in that sense, no one should feel excluded. With Cancer Trials Ireland and other clinical trial networks, we try to put funding into the system to allow the best people to come together to deliver the right numbers of patients with the right specialty skills. There is no doubt that it is incumbent on those networks to ensure that the net is cast very wide and that there are no impediments, whether infrastructural or otherwise. As it happens, with Cancer Trials Ireland, we ran an international review last year which was a positive review with regard to scientific outputs but it asked questions about appropriate structures and how financial flow happens through the system, especially in the context of interconnectedness between trial activity and it having to happen in hospitals, where there is change going on related to Sláintecare, regional integrated care organisations and such. On the back of that recommendation to look at the structure, we are running a more finance and structure-oriented review, for which we are bringing the terms of reference to our board in the next few weeks. It then will happen over the coming months to ensure that Cancer Trials Ireland is structurally fit for the future in a transforming healthcare system.