The National Department of Health (NDoH) hosted the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) Joint Meeting with Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) and Animal Research Ethics Committees (ARECs) Chairs, on 13-14 August at the Birchwood OR Tambo Conference Centre in Boksburg, Gauteng. The event brought together stakeholders responsible for governing and ethically overseeing health research in South Africa. Discussions included research ethics committee independence, monitoring, annual reporting, transparency and strengthening research oversight within a changing research environment.
Representing the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Cochrane South Africa (CSA), Dr Duduzile Ndwandwe, Senior Specialist Scientist at CSA, presented on the South African National Clinical Trials Register (SANCTR) and demonstrated the growing value of clinical trial registry data for understanding South Africa’s research landscape. Her presentation highlighted the importance of strong national research infrastructure for understanding and responding to changes within the clinical research ecosystem.
Funding disruptions, for example, may affect individual studies, research institutions, scientific capacity and ultimately the evidence available to address national health priorities. Reliable national data can help South Africa identify and understand these shifts more systematically.
SANCTR is not only as an important platform for clinical trial registration and transparency, but also as a potentially valuable source of research intelligence. When registration information is complete, accurate and regularly updated, it can provide insights into where clinical research is taking place, which health conditions are being investigated, who is sponsoring and funding research, recruitment patterns, study status and how the clinical research landscape is changing over time.
One example presented at the meeting explored what SANCTR data can reveal about changes in United States-linked funding within South Africa’s clinical trials landscape. Against the backdrop of recent shifts in global health and research financing, the analysis showed how national registry data can be used to examine patterns in externally funded clinical research and begin identifying potential vulnerabilities in the research system. This represents an important evolution in how clinical trial registries can support the national research enterprise. Beyond fulfilling registration and transparency requirements, registry data can help understand research investment, identify gaps, and monitor changes that may affect South Africa’s health research priorities.
“Clinical trial registries should increasingly help us not only document the research landscape but also understand it. By strengthening the quality and use of registry data, we can generate research intelligence that supports transparency, accountability and more strategic decision making about South Africa’s clinical research enterprise,” said Dr Ndwandwe.
The presentation at the NHREC Joint Meeting showed how this infrastructure can be used not only to register research, but also to generate the intelligence needed for a more transparent, responsive, and resilient South African clinical research ecosystem.
Cochrane South Africa's Role in Strengthening the Research Evidence Continuum - From Trial Registration to Evidence-Informed Decision-Making
CSA’s involvement in SANCTR complements its broader mandate within the SAMRC to strengthen the generation, synthesis and use of health research evidence. CSA’s work across the South African National Clinical Trials Register (SANCTR) and the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) provides an important link between research registration and the wider evidence ecosystem.
Clinical trial registration makes research visible and improves transparency. As studies progress and findings become available, that evidence can contribute to systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis products. Synthesised evidence can subsequently support policy, clinical practice, research priority setting and health system decision making. This continuum from research registration to evidence generation, to evidence synthesis, to evidence-informed decision making is central to the work of CSA and contributes directly to SAMRC’s broader mandate of improving health through research and innovation.
“Clinical trial registries therefore represent more than administrative infrastructure. When effectively utilised, they can help identify research gaps, reduce unnecessary duplication, monitor research activity and provide intelligence to support future research priorities. Complete and regularly updated trial registration also contributes to a broader system of research accountability by improving the visibility of studies from initial registration through recruitment, completion and dissemination of results”, added Dr Ndwandwe.
SANCTR provides an important national platform for monitoring South Africa’s clinical trials landscape, while PACTR extends this capability across the African continent. As South Africa’s health research system evolves, the value of clinical trial registries will increasingly extend beyond counting registered studies. Registry data can help address strategic questions about where research investment is directed, which health priorities are receiving attention, where important research gaps remain and how changes in global research financing may affect the sustainability of the national research enterprise.
CSA’s work with these platforms creates opportunities for SAMRC and its partners to strengthen clinical trial transparency and build greater research intelligence capacity. These include efforts to strengthen the infrastructure connecting research transparency, evidence generation, evidence-informed decision-making and knowledge translation.
View moments of the NHREC Joint Meeting | HERE