Children’s health is a major societal challenge for Europe and the world, over 50 % of the medicines used for children had not been tested in this specific age group. Conducting clinical trials in children requires specific competences and infrastructures. The PedCRIN project, coordinated by ECRIN-ERIC (www.ecrin.org) was funded by H2020 (INFRADEV-3 call 2016, 3.3M€) to strengthen the capacity of ECRIN to support paediatric trials, in particular investigator-initiated trials, in close cooperation with the paediatric patients and the paediatric clinical research community. This followed an ESFRI application for a European infrastructure for paediatric trials (EPCTRI), resulting in a recommendation on the ESFRI roadmap 2016 that EPCTRI and ECRIN explore the potential to align their efforts at strategic and operational level. The PedCRIN project builds on six work packages: Project management & coordination (WP1), sustainability of PedCRIN outcomes, to ensure optimal maintenance of the organization, tools, and services beyond the end of the PedCRIN (WP2), development tools for paediatric and neonatal trials (WP3), conduct of three pilot paediatric trials (WP4), communication, dissemination, empowerment (WP5) and ethics requirements (WP6).
The PedCRIN project aimed to broaden the operational capabilities of ECRIN, by connecting to new clinical trial units with paediatric expertise, thus developing its capacity to design, plan and manage multinational paediatric trials, and by attracting new users’ communities able to design multinational neonatal and paediatric trials. The PedCRIN project has provided a unique opportunity for ECRIN to improve its business model and financial sustainability, attracting more industry-sponsored trials and more Member and Observer countries. In terms of expansion, two countries participating in the PedCRIN consortium decided to join ECRIN: Ireland in November 2018 and Poland in August 2019. In addition, Czech Republic, already an Observer, became a Member in January 2018. All have paediatric expertise in terms of trial management and investigation.