March 26, 2025
As the global research community confronts drastic cuts and extraordinary opposition to its work by the US government, the world cannot lose focus on the critical need for high-quality, impactful clinical research.
This Friday, The World Health Organization (WHO) will host a webinar to launch a series of articles to be published later today in Lancet Global Health, Shaping the Future of Clinical Trials.
Friday, 28 March, 13.00 – 14.30 CET/ 08.00 – 09.30am EDT
This webinar will explore strategies to advance the May 2022 WHO Resolution 75.8, Strengthening clinical trials to provide high-quality evidence on health interventions and to improve research quality and coordination while examining each of the seven articles in the series.
At AVAC, we are especially pleased that one of the seven papers highlights the essential role of community engagement, referencing the Good Participatory Practice (GPP) guidelines, to improve research conduct and outcomes. This paper—Better engagement, better evidence: working in partnership with patients, the public, and communities in clinical trials with involvement and good participatory practice—is co-authored by AVAC’s Stacey Hannah and Jessica Salzwedel and partner, Catherine Slack of the HIV/AIDS Vaccine Ethics Group in South Africa. (For more about GPP, be sure to check out our online GPP Body of Evidence.)
We hope you will look out for the series of papers later today and join the conversation Friday to learn more about WHO’s call to make engagement central to clinical trials. Together we will discuss systemic gaps, structural inequities, and solutions—including stronger policies, increased funding, better regulatory oversight, and a research culture that integrates GPP as essential to future clinical trials around the world.