What is human research?
Human research (also known as research involving human beings) is designed to investigate human diseases, develop new treatments or gain a better understanding of the human body.
Human research has led to impressive advances in medicine. Only with such research can new drugs and other treatments be developed for previously incurable diseases.
At the same time, research projects involve certain risks for the people who take part. For this reason, human research in Switzerland is regulated by legislation (the Human Research Act). This Act is designed to protect human research participants.
Human research comprises projects of the following types:
1. Clinical studies:
In clinical studies (also known as clinical trials), generally new, experimental treatments (e.g. new cancer therapies) are tested in human beings. Often, the new treatment is compared with an existing treatment – i.e. one group receives the new, and the other the existing treatment.
2. Observational studies:
In observational studies, the participants do not receive any experimental treatments. It is investigated, purely by observation, how the participants respond to an existing treatment. For this purpose, additional measurement data or additional biological material (e.g. blood or small tissue samples) is collected from the participants.
3. Research projects involving existing data and samples:
In studies of this kind, existing health-related data or biological material (e.g. tissue samples) is used to answer a new research question. For this reason, they are also known as further use research projects.
In 2023, a total of 2'117 human research projects were started; they can be broken down by study type as follows:
Additional statistical information on human research projects in Switzerland can be found in the Statistical Report.