The CT-Luso Project is completing Work Package 5 and preparing to enter a new stage of its capacity-building programme. The next phase, to take place in Portugal, will bring together 28 professionals from the PALOP for a training programme in Lisbon and Porto, aimed at participants who successfully complete the training currently underway.
The 21st CT-Luso Project coordination meeting, held on 3 June 2026, provided an opportunity to review progress across the work underway and prepare the project’s next steps.
Among the main topics discussed was the completion of the three deliverables developed under Work Package 5: training materials; processing and operational materials, including Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and their respective templates; and the investigational medicinal product pathway.
Developed over recent months through close collaboration among the partners, these deliverables will be submitted to the European Commission in August 2026. More than project outputs, they are tools designed to support the participating countries by promoting the adoption of harmonised procedures and the replication of good practices in clinical research.
The final assessment process for Work Package 5 trainees was also presented. The tests will take place on 23, 24 and 25 June for different groups of participants, with the schedules to be communicated in due course by Project Manager Catarina Sobrinho.
Successful completion of Work Package 5 is a mandatory requirement for access to Work Package 6, which will constitute one of the project’s most distinctive stages. Twenty-eight professionals from the PALOP are expected to take part in an in-person training programme in Lisbon and Porto, during the first week of October or, alternatively, the first week of November. The programme will involve INFARMED, CEIC, NOVA Medical School and BlueClinical, providing participants with direct exposure to different institutional settings involved in clinical research.
As part of the project’s dissemination activities, an overview was provided of the webinar ‘Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Trials’, held on 28 May, which brought together around 50 participants. The webinar ‘Equity in Access to Health Innovation’, scheduled for 25 June, was also announced.
The meeting also included the dissemination of information about the EDCTP Prizes 2027, for which applications are open until 2 September 2026. The awards recognise outstanding individuals and teams from Africa and Europe for their contribution to clinical research and international scientific cooperation in health.
Finally, information was shared about the presentation of a scientific poster from the project at the 84th World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), which will take place from 30 August to 2 September 2026 in Montreal, Canada.
