The role of the UKCRC Registered CTU Network’s International Registration Review Committee (IRRC) is to undertake and have oversight of the Network’s Registration process. In brief, this process assesses the Clinical Trials Unit’s expertise, experience and capability in the design conduct and analysis of clinical trials in the UK. Registration acts as a hallmark of quality, excellence and integrity and provides assurance to the standard of studies undertaken by Registered units. The Committee’s members have extensive expertise in undertaking robust clinical trials at a high-level.
Prof Otavio Berwanger Chair
Professor Otavio Berwanger is the Executive Director of The George Institute for Global Health UK and leads the Institute’s work in the UK in collaboration with Imperial College London, where he holds a professorial appointment as Chair in Clinical Trials.
His research interests focus on the design and conduct of global innovative and efficient large-scale clinical trial models, including decentralised trials and the use of routinely collected data to enhance participant recruitment and endpoint ascertainment.
Before joining The George Institute and Imperial College London, Professor Berwanger served as Director of the Academic Research Organisation (ARO) at the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A distinguished cardiologist and clinical trialist, he has extensive expertise in leading large-scale, pragmatic randomised clinical trials. His trials have been conducted across multiple countries and published in high-impact journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ.
In March 2025, Professor Berwanger was appointed Chair of the UKCRC Registered CTU Network’s International Registration Review Committee.
Prof Deborah Ashby – Deputy Chair
Professor Deborah Ashby is Director of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London where she holds the Chair in Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials, and was Founding Co-Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit. She is a Chartered Statistician and her research interests are in clinical trials, risk-benefit decision making for medicines, and the utility of Bayesian approaches in these areas.
She is the immediate Past President of the Royal Statistical Society. She has sat on the UK Commission on Human Medicines and acted as adviser to the European Medicines Agency. She has recently chaired the Population Research Committee for Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research HTA Commissioning Board, and was Deputy Chair of the HTA Programme. Deborah was awarded the OBE for services to medicine in 2009, appointed an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2010, and elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012.
