Information for researchers

Answers to frequently asked questions can be found here.

Information on the regulation of human research in Switzerland or on requirements for research projects and the procedure for submissions to enforcement bodies can be found under links.

According to reports from Swiss researchers, since 1 October 2025 there have been problems with new registrations and updates to existing registrations of clinical trials on clinicaltrials.gov due to the US government shutdown.

According to Art. 64 para. 4 of the Clinical Trials Ordinance (ClinO), an approved clinical trial must be registered in a WHO primary register before the trial is conducted and within six months of approval.

What can researchers do if problems with clinicaltrials.gov persist?

Instead of clinicaltrials.gov, other WHO-approved primary registries can be used for registration in accordance with Art. 64 para. 1 ClinO. For example, the following two registries allow English-language registrations of clinical trials taking place in Switzerland:

- ISRCTN (UK), registration subject to a fee (GBP 250)

- DRKS (Germany), registration free of charge, French or Italian authorisations from the relevant ethics committee may need to be translated into German or English

More information can be found, for example, in this article by the IQWiG.

If you are not sure whether your research project requires authorisation, you can submit a request for clarification of responsibility to the ethics committee responsible for your region.
More information can be found under Clarification of responsibility on the swissethics website.

All clinical trials authorised in Switzerland under the ClinO or ClinO-MD which are registered on the BASEC submissions portal will be automatically included in the study search on the HumRes website. In addition, information will be imported from the primary registry in which your study data was entered (e.g. clinicaltrials.gov).
It is not possible to register a study directly on the HumRes website.

Do all the following points apply?

☑ My study is a clinical trial involving persons in accordance with the ClinO or ClinO‑MD.
☑ My study was submitted via BASEC.
☑ My study has been authorised by the ethics committee responsible.
☑ My study has been correctly entered in a primary registry.
☑ The primary registry number has been correctly entered in BASEC.
☑ Any changes have been entered both in BASEC and in the primary registry.

If all these points apply and your study still does not appear after (period), or errors in the entry have not been corrected, please contact humres@clutterbag.admin.ch with a description of the problem.