Research Approvals Processes Project: July 2025 update

As the Research Approvals Processes Project (RAPP) continues to advance streamlined processes across British Columbia’s health authorities, work is also underway at a national level. RAPP, in collaboration with its health authority partners, is aware of these initiatives and eager to leverage their successes where possible. National work underway includes:

Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium: This national network funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is supporting research initiatives across the country. By funding research coordinators in local sites, they are facilitating increased uptake of patients in clinical trials, including trials in a number of national research networks.

The Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium also supports several working groups to streamline clinical trials approvals. The Contracts Working Group has recently finalized a standard template for a master data and biological samples sharing agreement, and a master Tri-Council funded studies agreement for interventional and regulated studies.  These templates are coming into use in British Columbia and are being included for discussion in RAPP Contracts and Agreements workstream to ensure their uptake where feasible.

CanReview: This partner of the Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium is focused on advancing single ethics review for multisite clinical trials in Canada. As this work progresses, RAPP is looking to leverage their learnings and success where possible. Although there are nuances to approvals in British Columbia and CanReview is still in an early stage, RAPP has identified this work as having potential to advance its goals.