“This is our second conference,” says Dr. Jean Bourbeau, CANTRAIN Principal Nominated Investigator, Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University, and physician specializing in lung disease. “We had one in Montreal last year. If it’s a national platform, then the annual conference must move to a different part of the country, so that we are really representative of what Canada is: multicultural, but also multi-regional, from the Pacific to the Atlantic.”

Making clinical trials more representative of the populations they serve is a key focus of the 2025 Clinical Trials Training Summit. Organized by four clinical trials training programs (CTTPs) – CANTRAIN, StrokeCog, CAN-TAP-TALENT, CBITN – it takes place on February 24-26 at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, BC, with a mission of enhancing standards for clinical trials in Canada and beyond. One of the Summit highlights will be a representative from the World Health Organization, presenting the WHO Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials. Understanding the experience of clinical trials in developing countries will be of great help for Canada to address its own marginalized populations, including Indigenous communities. “Canada may be a high economy country, but it’s important when we’re doing a trial, that we are more representative of the entire population,” states Dr. Bourbeau.

Central to the Summit will be envisioning a brighter future for clinical trials, with sessions on mentorship and career development, not to mention presentations from CANTRAIN’s 2023-24 Prize Winners, and Poster Sessions from the 2024-25 Awardees. “I think the motto ‘Better Prepared. Better Care. Together.’ is very important, and that’s what we’re aiming for in the Summit,” explains Bourbeau. “All of this, it’s building for the future. The young people who will make a difference when we’re not here anymore. The next generation of scientists, physicians, trialists, clinical research professionals, patients and community partners.”

“It is about being prepared, it’s about partnership, because we cannot do it all, and it’s about building on the foundation of what we have done so far, and to be able to continue our work into the future.”