Dear Members & Stakeholders,
One year ago, I took up my position as Cancer Trials Ireland’s CEO and set out with clear ambitions: open more trials, achieve faster and more predictable trial start-up times, provide stronger advocacy, and present a compelling case for the value of cancer clinical trials in Ireland. Twelve months on, I am pleased to share CTI’s progress on these points, and our plans for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.
Accruals
Cancer Trials Ireland currently has 137 active cancer trials running across Ireland, and close to 5,000 (4,903) patients took part in cancer clinical trials in Ireland in 2025. In 2026 we are already ahead of the same period for last year, so if our collective performance continues, we will exceed 5,000 accruals for this year.
It is important to acknowledge the strong rise in accruals since 2022 is driven in part by the return to normality following the pandemic and HSE cyberattack, but our ambition is to continue to grow our accruals, year-on-year, by attracting more trials to Ireland, and increasing the number of trials open at sites around Ireland. A key factor in achieving this is our core focus on improving Time to First Patient.
Strategy & Time to First Patient (TTFP)
This has been a key deliverable for CTI since the organisation restructured internally to create the Start-Up unit in Q4 2024. Since October 2024, we have sought to identify and share start-up data (CTI studies, and all commercial cancer trials) and to benchmark Ireland’s performance against EU countries and economies of a similar size. As Prof Donal Brennan has repeatedly stated, Ireland has the potential to be a strong Tier-2 nation in clinical trials, and that is our ambition.
TTFP centrally informed the six strategic priorities we identified at our Board Strategy Day in January 2026. Then in March 2026, we convened a dedicated TTFP stakeholder meeting ahead of the Spring DSSG’s, bringing together the Department of Health, HSE, sites, and industry partners. Here, participants agreed that certain aspects of trial start-up could run in parallel to the CTIS approval process, so that sites can be activated as quickly as possible once a trial is approved (similar to the approach taken in Spain and elsewhere). CTI will undertake a pilot in this regard commencing this Summer.
There is no question that, having returned from ASCO 2026 (where the CTI team had 30+ meetings with industry and collaborative groups) the central question we encountered was: what are your start-up times?
This remains our key objective. CTI will soon establish a national working group focusing on start-up. However, while we strive to do everything we can in terms of refining and streamlining internal processes and through sharing and discussing start-up pinch points as a community in order to reduce TTFP and make Ireland a more attractive destination for opening trials, we are hindered in our ability to expand Ireland’s academic clinical trial portfolio due to funding and resources issues.
Funding
If our CTI community focus is TTFP, our communications and advocacy objectives with government, elected officials, and the public is to demonstrate the value that cancer trials represent, in order to increase funding. Last November we published the Value of Cancer Trials report, which estimated €14.8 million in direct drug cost savings to the State from a sample of 18 trials, alongside €36.7 million in inward investment generated by six of those trials. The report generated widespread media coverage, and data from it was included in the final report and recommendations of the National Clinical Trials Oversight Group. In late 2026 we will publish a second Value of Cancer Trials report that will include data from the sites themselves, a snapshot of which we were able to share at the May 2026 CTI Cancer Retreat. This will sustain the strong case for increased government investment in cancer clinical trials.
In the meantime, I am delighted to report that the Irish Cancer Society renewed their funding commitment of €1 million per year to CTI, for a further three years. This followed an invigorating review process that was conducted last Summer to review the partnership to date. Conducting such an in-depth review has fostered even closer working relationships and co-operation between our organisations. The Irish Cancer Society remains an incredibly important supporter of Cancer Trials Ireland and a stalwart funder of cancer research in Ireland.
As is the Health Research Board (HRB). In December 2026, the first HRB multi-annual 5-year grant-funding cycle for the seven HRB Cancer Clusters, the two Cancer Trial Enhancement Award sites (UHG and UHL) and our Cancer Trials Ireland Network, comes to a close. This grant, and its benefits and challenges, has been a regular topic at our Cancer Retreats since 2023. The community’s commitment in discussing the grant at our events, and participating in surveys pursuant to it, has been instrumental in helping CTI form a national view of what is required in terms of multi-year, sustainable funding to support and grow cancer clinical trials in Ireland.
Advocacy
In recent months we have communicated with the Minister for Health, and the Oireachtas Health Committee about the upcoming Clinical Trials Advisory Committee (CTAC) and have engaged with the Expression of Interest process for selecting CTAC members. The establishment of CTAC represents an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate the transformation of Ireland’s clinical trials ecosystem – CTI is keen be involved with this important development and to have an active role via CTAC in implementing the recommendations of the NCTOG report.
In March, myself and Veronica McInerney (UoG/HSE West & North West representative), discussed the topic of Sectoral Skills Gaps and Critical Skills with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, at the invitation of the Committee’s Chair, Erin McGreehan, TD. This was another clear example of the community working together, beyond the considerable daily demands faced at site, to make a compelling case for more rigorous workforce planning.
Also in March, we welcomed PO John O’Neill from the Department of Health to our DSSG stakeholders meeting to update us on the upcoming Biotech Act, pursuant to clinical trials. Last December CTI submitted a consultation document about the same Act, and I recently took part in facilitated Life Sciences forums and discussion groups, organised by the Department of Health. In addition, as a member of the NCCP National Cancer Research Group, CTI has contributed to the development of the National Cancer Research Plan.
Finally, arising from closer collaboration between CTI and the Irish Cancer Society, the Society’s Advocacy Team is supporting the development of an advocacy plan that will focus on short term objectives (imminent pre-budget submissions), medium term objectives (next National Cancer Strategy) and long term ones, like significantly increased funding, and significantly more trials open in Ireland in the coming decade.
Research
On the research and training side, the 2026 National Training Day attracted 87 abstracts from across oncology, haematology, radiation oncology, surgery, and translational research – a strong reflection of how broad and collaborative the Irish cancer research community has become. The CTRIAL-IE 24-72 INSPIRE all-island radiotherapy trial was launched in April, and increased community interest in developing Ireland as a strong destination for cell-therapy, radioligand and optimisation trials, all point to a community thinking ambitiously about the next phase.
Looking ahead
Looking ahead, as we enter the final six months of the current HRB Cancer Trials Grant Cycle, and engage with the 15-month transition grant process (Jan 2027 – Mar 2028), we will continue to press for sustained, cross-departmental government investment. Ireland has the opportunity – and the evidence – to make a strong case as a high-value, high-trust destination for cancer clinical trials. That is a case we will keep making, together.
Thank you for your personal support to me during my first year as CTI’s CEO, and for your continued support of Cancer Trials Ireland and the research community it serves.
Warm regards,
