Background

A workshop was held during the NRC-conference 2011under the title “Monitoring – The Nordic Network”. It aimed at establishing an opportunity to everyone engaged with quality assurance/monitoring of academic studies in the Nordic countries to meet and discuss areas of common interest. As an introduction to the workshop were outlined the complicated arrangements regarding the responsibilities of surveillance and planning of quality control of academic studies with investigators acting also as sponsors. People directly engaged with academic research (managers, study nurses or monitors) participated in the workshop. During the discussions it became evident that, if we wanted to facilitate and optimize the conductance of academic GCP-studies across borders in the Nordic countries, higher degree of collaboration and understanding between the Nordic GCP-units and other monitors is needed.

The different GCP-units and GCP-monitors working in the Nordic countries would definitely benefit from sharing experience regarding interpretation of GCP-requirements and how to spread knowledge of GCP to academic investigators. Thus, the conclusion of the workshop was clear. A proposal to the NRC was formulated to establish a network where people working with GCP in academic studies in the Nordic countries could meet and exchange experience.

Mapping the units in the Nordic Countries

Mapping the units in the Nordic Countries is one of the tasks that the network aims at accomplishing.

Initial mapping by country