British Columbia’s clinical trials community is entering an exciting new chapter — one that will enhance our national and global competitiveness and set the province up for future success.

Clinical Trials British Columbia, part of Michael Smith Health Research BC, will take the lead on advancing a unified, province-wide approach to clinical trials. This evolution builds on insights from a recent situational analysis of BC’s clinical trials environment that identified the need for a single convening organization to coordinate provincial efforts.

At the request of government, Clinical Trials British Columbia will now serve in that convener role, helping to align priorities, drive collaboration, and enhance BC’s position as a destination for high-quality clinical research.

As part of this new role, Clinical Trials BC is changing its name to Clinical Trials British Columbia and launching a new website. While the name is changing, the team remains part of Health Research BC, which continues to support and enable this important work to strengthen BC’s clinical trials ecosystem.

Over the next six months, Clinical Trials British Columbia will focus on several priorities:

• Aligning ethics harmonization and participant recruitment (through the REACH BC platform) with work to advance clinical trials

• Supporting provincial working groups focused on increasing BC’s competitiveness

• Raising awareness of Clinical Trials British Columbia’s leadership role across the province and beyond

Research ethics will continue to play an important part in this work. Clinical Trials British Columbia will support the BC Research Ethics Strategic Advisory Group, which is developing a position paper on what our province needs to strengthen research ethics at the ecosystem level. Meanwhile, Research Ethics BC will continue its work under its previous identity — the BC ethics harmonization initiative — now housed within Clinical Trials British Columbia.

Together, these changes mark a major step forward in building a more connected, coordinated, and competitive clinical trials environment for British Columbia.