Clinical trial data sharing: what we’ve heard from researchers
We want to make it easier for researchers to share and re-use clinical trial data. Together with Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we ran a consultation to hear researchers’ views on current barriers and opportunities.
What’s inside
- perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in clinical trial data sharing, based on an online survey of 174 people working in the clinical trials community, and a workshop.
Who this is for
- anyone involved in running clinical trials
- anyone who uses secondary trial data
- policy makers
- funders
Key findings
- Guidance and support: researchers need better guidance and support to share data, including training on how to de-identify data.
- Standards: the research community needs to agree on universal standards, including data and meta-data standards, and acceptable levels of re-identification risk.
- Cost: funders should cover the costs of sharing data, including data preparation and use of access committees, catalogues and repositories. It should be clear how researchers can ask for these costs.
- Recognition and incentives: funders should recognise data sharing more explicitly to incentivise researchers, and demonstrate that they value data as a research output.
- Principles and policies: we're committed to the FAIR principles and are signatories of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). We’ll continue to reflect this commitment in our funding policies.
More information
- Find out more about our work on open research
- For more information, contact Georgina Humphreys, Clinical Data Sharing Manager, at g.humphreys@wellcome.org.