The University of Oxford recently successfully applied to become a member of the World Health Organization's Global Clinical Trials Forum (WHO GCTF). This is a global, multi-stakeholder network to strengthen clinical trial environments and infrastructure at national, regional and global levels.
The Forum responds to World Health Assembly resolution WHA75.8, which called on WHO to improve the quality and coordination of clinical trials to generate high-quality evidence for health decision-making.
The GCTF supports the implementation of WHO’s Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials, which sets out principles and actions to improve the design, conduct, oversight and use of trials. It is further guided by the Global Action Plan for Clinical Trial Ecosystem Strengthening (GAP-CTS), which translates the guidance into nine priority action areas addressing barriers across current clinical trial ecosystems.
Other GCTF launch members can be found on the WHO webpage, but they include for example the Cochrane Collaboration, the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, the UK Health Research Authority, the International Vaccine Institute, McMaster University, Medicines for Malaria Venture, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, Quality by Randomization Limited (Protas) and The Global Health Network.
The Medical Sciences Division proposes setting up a University of Oxford WHO GCTF internal working group which appropriately represents those involved in clinical trials in different fields across the Division. Ideally, we are seeking one or two key senior staff members from each clinical trials group to participate in virtual meetings to discuss ways in which the MSD can both best support this initiative and create opportunities related to it. If you are interested in this opportunity, please email christina.reith@ndph.ox.ac.uk stating your department and giving a very brief overview of your clinical trials involvement by 01 December 2025.