CRESS joins a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network and will recruit two PhD candidates on EDI in clinical trials
The METHODS team at CRESS is a partner in a newly funded European doctoral training network supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) under the Horizon Europe programme. The network, entitled EDICT – Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Clinical Trials, brings together seven European universities and research institutions, alongside industry and non-academic partners.
As part of this network, the METHODS team will recruit two PhD candidates in Paris starting in September 2026, to conduct research on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in clinical trials.
EDICT addresses a central challenge in contemporary clinical research: the persistent lack of representativeness in clinical trial populations. Too often, participants enrolled in trials do not reflect the diversity of the patients who will ultimately receive the treatments being evaluated. This raises important concerns regarding external validity, health equity, and the quality of evidence underpinning clinical decision-making. In total, sixteen fully funded doctoral candidates will be recruited across Europe and will benefit from a structured training programme combining academic research, international secondments, and intersectoral collaboration.
The first PhD project hosted by the METHODS team will focus on improving the measurement of demographic and psychosocial characteristics that may act as potential treatment effect modifiers in randomized controlled trials. The project will map current measurement practices, identify priority constructs relevant to EDI, and evaluate alternative measurement approaches to support robust analyses of treatment effect heterogeneity.
The second PhD project will focus on target trial emulation for underrepresented populations. It will assess the methodological feasibility of emulating target trials in these groups, identify key barriers, and develop a framework to improve evidence generation for populations that remain insufficiently represented in conventional clinical trials.
Applications will open on 2 March 2026. In line with MSCA mobility rules, applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in France for more than 12 months in the 36 months prior to recruitment.
- https://edictproject.eu
By Karolin Krause, Sally Yaacoub, Isabelle Boutron
