About IDEAS

Improving Design, Evaluation and Analysis of early drug development Studies

Drug development is a long and costly process which suffers from the major shortcoming that frequently failure is often only determined during the final stage. Advanced statistical methods for study design, evaluation and analysis, employed already at the early phases of drug development, have a great potential to increase the efficiency of the development process.

IDEAS is a European training network for early stage researchers working on statistical methods for early drug development. The network is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 633567 and comprises of 8 full partners and six associated partners at major European universities, the pharmaceutical industry, and consulting companies. The project, which is coordinated by Lancaster University, started on 1. January 2015 and will run for 4 years.

IDEAS will train 14 researchers in medical statistics by providing a tailored programme that includes specific training on quantitative methods for early drug development and generic skills for statisticians. The network takes a multi-national trans-sectoral approach that allows students to experience both academia and industry. This is achieved through joint supervision and a secondment scheme to the partner institution.