Clinical Trial Development

Trial Development Workshop


To support pillar two 'to facilitate the design, conduct & integration of multicentre clinical trials nationwide’ we facilitate trial development workshops. The Network has hosted a workshop annually for the past 4 years.

"Incredible opportunity to seek feedback for potential research ideas, projects and opportunities. The entire experience was invaluable on every level, I cannot express my gratitude enough!"


"Over the two days of the workshop I was really impressed with the enthusiasm, support and encouragement I received…"

“Great expertise in the room. Such a positive, supportive environment”


"The set up and flow of events was excellent. Made the flow and order of research much easier to understand"


"I liked the involvement of consumers; a non-threatening audience and setting was created"

Aim of the workshop

The aim of the trial development workshop is to support the development of promising clinical trial concepts and ideas to a stage where they are ready for success in competitive funding applications. Concepts accepted for development during the workshop are for investigator-led collaborative clinical trials, which are likely to recruit across multiple New Zealand sites.
Call for concepts

Annually, the Network makes a call for submissions from investigator groups for concepts or ideas that can be developed into New Zealand-wide multicentre clinical trials with potential to answer important questions across any aspect of maternal and perinatal health. Calls for concepts are advertised here on our website and in our newsletters towards the end of the year for workshops taking place the following February.
How a workshop operates

Each workshop is facilitated by experts in the field for concepts selected by members of the Network's National Executive Committee. Wider faculty members including biostatisticians, Māori health researchers, health economists, clinical trial design experts and consumers provide their expertise and insights too. The investigator teams participate in a mock funding panel discussion where they receive constructive feedback to develop their ideas. By the end of the workshop, investigator groups will have developed action plans to develop their clinical trial ideas for which the Network aims to provide on-going support.
Who should attend?

Each workshop is open to everyone. Those who attend don’t need to be actively involved in the projects, they may simply be interested in the topics being discussed or may want to learn more about how quality clinical trials are developed. Whatever an individual's role or background we would love to see anyone interested in clinical trials development attend one of our next workshops. Upcoming workshops will be advertised here on our website and in our newsletters.

To learn more about how the workshops operate and to read feedback we have received you can access the latest workshop reports here:

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