Clincal Trial Workshop 2026

Clinical Trial Workshop 2026

Background

We are pleased to announce the upcoming ADVANCE-ID Clinical Trial Workshop—an intensive two-and-a-half-day programme designed to strengthen clinical trial capacity, foster regional collaborations, and equip participants with the knowledge and practical skills to design, implement, and disseminate high-quality clinical trials.

Co-organised with the WHO, the workshop will convene internationally renowned experts. Participants will be guided through every stage of the clinical trial journey—from developing a robust research question and selecting the most appropriate study design, to navigating statistical considerations, assessing feasibility in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings, and securing funding for clinical research.

The workshop will culminate in elevator-pitch presentations, where participants will present their research proposals in a grant-seeking format and receive feedback from an expert faculty.

This is a closed-door workshop, with physical attendance by invitation only.

The sessions will also be livestreamed via Zoom and are open to all to watch online.

Register here to join the livestream: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/XitvsiRUxL

Agenda

DAY 1 – 31 Aug
8:00 – 8:30 am	Networking Breakfast	Open to All Workshop Attendees and invited Guests
8:30 – 9:15 am	ADVANCE–ID, NUS – WHO Collaborating Centre For Clinical Trials	A/Prof Mo Yin, Director, ADVANCE-ID, NUS Guest of honour: Prof Liu Bin; Deputy President, Research and Technology, NUS Prof Hsu Li Yang, NUS Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe; WHO representative, Kuala Lumpur
9:15 – 9:30 am	Introductions & Workshop Expectations	Dr Shweta Rajkumar Singh; Research Fellow, ADVANCE-ID, NUS
9:30 – 9:55 am	Forming a Research Question Building the context Framing aims, objectives, intervention and outcomes	Prof Nicholas Day; Director, Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU)
9:55 – 10:20 am	Forming a Research Question Ensure question is feasible, interesting, novel, ethical and relevant (FINER) Define the endpoint and hypothesis	Dr Kayoko Hayakawa; Chief Physician, Japan Institute for Health Security
10:20 – 11:00 am	Group Discussions	Mentored group discussions with clinical trial specialists, statisticians and public engagement representatives to refine research questions and develop study concepts
11:00 – 11:10 am	Break	—
11:10 – 11:35 am	Ensuring Feasibility Select population, site capacity Inclusion/exclusion criteria	Prof Julia Anna Bielicki; City St George’s, University of London; University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland
11:35 am – 12:00 pm	Ensuring Feasibility Turnaround time – diagnostics, operations Identifying the co-investigators/collaborators/stakeholders	Prof Nicholas Paton; NUS
12:00 – 12:30 pm	Group Discussions	—
12:30 – 1:30 pm	Lunch	—
1:30 – 2:15 pm	Panel Discussion – The Current and Future State of Clinical Trials Shift in Global Governance Sustained Infrastructure & “Always On” Networks Equity, Inclusivity, and Underrepresented Populations Regulatory Harmonization and Ethics Oversight	Prof David Paterson; Executive Chair, ADVANCE-ID, NUS (Moderator) Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe; WHO representative Dr Inke Nadia; Vice-Dean, Universitas Sumatera Utara Dr Kamini Walia; Scientist, Indian Council of Medicine Research Dr Birahim Pierre Ndiaye; Head, Clinical Research and Trial Platform, IRESSEF, Senegal
2:15 – 2:45 pm	Clinical Trial Design I Types of clinical trial designs Selecting the right study design	Prof Sarah Walker; University College London; University of Oxford
2:45 – 3:15 pm	Clinical Trial Design II Treatment allocation Minimising bias in trial design	Prof Bee Choo Tai; NUS
3:15 – 3:30 pm	Tea Break	—
3:30 – 4:30 pm	Group Discussion	—
4:30 – 5:30 pm	Speed Networking	—
5:30 – 6:00 pm	Break	—
6:00 pm	Dinner	All participants are welcome
DAY 2 – 1 Sep
Morning Parallel Tracks (running concurrently)

Track A – Statistics (Ballroom)	Track B – Public Engagement (Cluny Room and Dalvey Room)
8:30 – 8:40 am – Introduction Speaker: Facilitator 8:40 – 9:05 am – Lecture: Sample Size Estimation and Power – Basic Designs Speaker: Prof Bee Choo Tai 9:05 – 9:35 am – Group Activity Speaker: Groups and facilitators 9:35 – 9:55 am – Lecture: Beyond Fixed: Adaptive Designs Speaker: Prof Sarah Walker 9:55 – 10:15 am – Group Activity Speaker: Groups and facilitators	8:30 – 8:40 am – Public ENGAGEment for Clinical Trials: A Vision for the Future Speaker: A/Prof Mo Yin 8:40 – 8:55 am – Establishing Country-Level Public Engagement Hub (Thailand) Speaker: Ms Rena Janamnuaysook 8:55 – 9:10 am – Establishing Country-Level Public Engagement Hub (Malaysia) Speaker: Dr Alex Phang 9:10 – 9:25 am – Establishing Country-Level Public Engagement Hub (Taiwan) Speaker: Dr Su-Wei Wong 9:25 – 9:50 am – Group Discussion Speaker: Groups and facilitators 9:50 – 10:00 am – Group Presentations Facilitator: A/Prof Christina Wong 10:00 – 10:25 am – Risk Communication During Clinical Trials Speaker: Dr Yiyun Shou
Tea Break — Track A: 10:15 – 10:30 am · Track B: 10:25 – 10:40 am
10:30 – 10:50 am – Lecture: Estimands: The Why, How, Who and When Speaker: Prof Sarah Walker 10:50 – 11:10 am – Group Activity Speaker: Groups and facilitators 11:10 – 11:30 am – Lecture: Through the Statistical Reviewer’s Lens Speaker: Prof Bee Choo Tai 11:30 am – 12:00 pm – Group Activity Speaker: Groups and facilitators	10:40 – 11:05 am – Group Discussion Speaker: Groups and facilitators 11:05 – 11:15 am – Group Presentation Facilitator: Dr Yiyun Shou 11:15 – 11:40 am – Use of Social Media Speaker: Dr Rayner Tan 11:40 – 11:50 am – Group Discussion Speaker: Groups and facilitators 11:50 am – 12:00 pm – Group Presentation Facilitator: Dr Rayner Tan 12:00 – 12:15 pm – How Funders Assess Public Engagement for Clinical Trial Grants Speaker: Ms Beenish Shaikh
Lunch — Track A: 12:00 – 1:00 pm · Track B: 12:15 – 1:00 pm

Afternoon (Plenary)
1:00 – 1:25 pm	Clinical Trial – Implementing Operations Operational workings of clinical trial sites	Dr Ding Ying, Assistant Director, Programme Manager, ADVANCE-ID, NUS
1:25 – 1:50 pm	Clinical Trial – Implementing Data monitoring Governance board	Prof Dafna Yahav; Tel Aviv University, Israel
1:50 – 2:45 pm	Group Discussions	—
2:45 – 3:00 pm	Tea Break	—
3:00 – 4:00 pm	Data Dissemination – Pertinent to LMICs Data transparency – compliance and mandates Review process – common rejection reasons Priorities (15 min talks each with 15 min for Q&A)	Session Chair: Prof Angela Huttner, Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Switzerland Speakers: Dr Syeda Saleha Hassan; Senior Editor, The Lancet Infectious Diseases Dr Marco De Ambrogi; Deputy Editor, The Lancet Infectious Diseases Dr Ming Yang; Senior Editor, Nature Medicine
4:00 – 4:10 pm	Public ENGAGEment for Clinical Trials: Challenges and Opportunities	Dr Yiyun Shou, Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia
4:10 – 5:00 pm	Debate: To ENGAGE or Not to ENGAGE	A/Prof Christina Wong, NUS; Debaters (for and against)
5:00 – 6:00 pm	Issues with Setting Up a Clinical Trial in LMIC – Panel Regulatory and ethical bottlenecks Infrastructure and diagnostic limitations Human resources and site capacity Patient-centric and ethical vulnerabilities Q&A – 40 min	Prof George Varghese, Head of Infectious Diseases, CMC Vellore (Moderator) Dr Serah Gitome, Lead project implementer, Kenya Medical Research Institute Dr Chibuzor Uchea, Senior manager, Wellcome Trust Dr Giri Rajahram, ID physician, QEII Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia Dr Julie Huynh, Clinician scientist, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
DAY 3 – 2 Sep (Half Day Programme)
9:00 – 10:00 am	Accelerating evidence to impact: Integrating implementation science in clinical trial designs Overview and implementation trial designs Health economics Q&A – 15 min	Session Chair: Dr Vasin Vasikasin, Assistant Professor and Consultant, Phramongkutklao College of Medicine Dr Rayner Tan; NUS A/Prof Taufique Joarder; DUKE-NUS Prof Nicholas Graves; DUKE-NUS
10:00 – 10:45 am	Securing Funding for Clinical Research: Strategies for Success Aligning research agendas Funding mechanisms Crafting a proposal, realistic budgeting, investigator mix, PE Q&A – 15 min	Session Chair: Dr Cybele Abad, Associate Professor, University of the Philippines Manila Dr Chibuzor Uchea, Senior Manager, Wellcome Trust Dr Lee Fook Kay, Head, Health Collaborative, Temasek Trust
10:45 – 11:00 am	Tea Break	—
11:00 am – 12:15 pm	Parallel Presentation Sessions (11 Selected Presentations) 11 randomly selected presenters (1 presenter per group) 5-min elevator pitch (funding-focused) 10-min Q&A and feedback	—
12:15 – 12:30 pm	Consolidation and Key Takeaways	Prof David Paterson, Executive Chair, ADVANCE-ID, NUS

With audience_clinical trial workshop 2026

ADVANCE-ID
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
National University of Singapore

Tahir Foundation Building
National University of Singapore
12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, Singapore 117549
+65 6516 4988