CoMeCT: Advancing trial and cohort study harmonisation

Ecraid joins six partners in the kick-off meeting to launch Coordination Mechanism for Cohorts and Trials (CoMeCT) project. Funded by the European Union (EU), the three-year project aims to coordinate and harmonise activities across Europe’s strategic adaptive platform trials and cohort studies focussed on infectious diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical importance of prioritising efforts on large-scale, pragmatic trials for efficient results, and consolidating clinical research efforts across Europe for more impactful outcomes. Led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, CoMeCT will develop a visible, well-defined coordination mechanism to highlight Europe's capacity and competence as an attractive base for clinical research.

CoMeCT is a significant step forward in boosting Europe's pandemic preparedness and response. It will build on and reinforce existing networks and infrastructure to establish a visible, well-defined coordination mechanism. This initiative encompasses EU-funded coordination mechanisms and networks, such as the Trial Coordination Board (TCB), Joint Access Advisory Mechanism (JAAM), the Cohort Coordination Board (CCB), and the Ecraid Coordinating Committee, to promote collaboration and synergy across diverse stakeholders and initiatives within Europe and beyond.

Harmonisation and innovation

Within the project, Ecraid is responsible for driving harmonisation and innovation across the European adaptive platform trials and cohort studies within CoMeCT and beyond. This includes extending the existing open source tools to encourage the adoption of FAIR principles, and promoting best practices in trial operations and governance, and the optimal use of data, resources to maximise the value added for the generation of scientific evidence in clinical trials and cohort studies.

The project has been awarded three million euros under the European Commission's new Horizon Health Program 2024-2027. CoMeCT was officially commenced on 1 December 2023 and will run over three years until December 2026.

The seven CoMeCT project beneficiaries are:

1. Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) – Coordinator 
2. European Clinical Research Alliance On Infectious Diseases (Ecraid)
3. European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN)
4. University of Verona (UNIVR)
5. National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)
6. Penta Foundation 
7. University Hospital Cologne (UHC)
    

More information

Visit http://comectproject.org and follow CoMeCT's activities on LinkedIn.