Mapping ethical, administrative, regulatory and logistical (EARL) barriers and solutions for pandemic-relevant clinical studies in Europe

Nina Gobat describes PREPARE’s work program in which they used social and behavioral sciences to assess ethical, administrative, regulatory and logistic (EARL) barriers to the rapid implementation of pandemic-relevant clinical research in Europe.

The team worked alongside PREPARE clinical studies, currently delivered across community care and hospital networks, to identify where delays arose in inter-pandemic periods and to anticipate challenges and solutions for studies responding in outbreak mode. This was done through a dedicated EARL work package, designed to identify and implement solutions to key EARL bottlenecks. EARL barriers and solutions were mapped to a framework that can be used to develop and enhance research preparedness. This work is on-going and new directions are proposed.