CanReview has reached an important milestone with the launch of a new agreement enabling institutions, REBs, researchers and sponsors to begin using Canada’s single research ethics review system for multi-site clinical trials.
The CanReview Agreement is now available for organizations seeking to become CanReview Participating Organizations, either as a Recruiting Site, a REB Host Institution, or both. By signing the agreement, organizations authorize REBs and researchers to participate the CanReview system.
The Agreement includes:
- CanReview Inter-Institutional Agreement (IIA) that governs how organizations delegate and accept ethics review, meet CanReview requirements and share oversight responsibilities.
- Stream Terms of Service that authorizes organizations to use Stream, CanReview’s online platform
Access the Agreement and find tools and resources to get started here.
Background & Collaborative Process
The CanReview collaboration enables single research ethics review for multi-site clinical trials conducted across Canada, while ensuring the highest ethical standards. Since late 2024, CanReview has been collaborating across Canada’s clinical trials community to establish the country’s first framework for a single research ethics review with strict yet fair timelines.
Over the past year, CanReview’s pan-Canadian team achieved significant progress towards system readiness. The online platform launched in May 2025, and hundreds of cross-country volunteers participated on CanReview’s tactical teams. These teams established core components for a broadly accessible national research ethics review framework, including: timelines and transparency; fee structures; informed consent templates; research ethics board (REB) validation pathways; and agreements.
Participation in CanReview requires organizations to sign an Inter-Institutional Agreement, enabling delegated research ethics review. CanReview’s cross-country Agreements Tactical Team was instrumental in developing a comprehensive and robust draft agreement that took into account diverse perspectives participating in a nation-wide system (academic hospitals and universities, regional and community hospitals, patients and caregivers, Indigenous communities and others).
The draft Agreement was shared broadly with institutions across Canada during a consultation period in the fall of 2025. More than 90 institutions across 9 provinces downloaded the agreement, and more than 25 institutions from across 7 provinces submitted specific feedback on the draft agreement. This high level of engagement is a testament to collaborative spirit that underpins CanReview.
Following extensive review and consolidation of feedback, members of CanReview and the Tactical Team, together with legal experts from across Canada, produced a CanReview Inter-Institutional Agreement and Stream Terms of Service that accommodates the highest degree of feedback while staying true to the vision of broadly serving organizations with diverse needs and considerations across Canada.
Thank You
CanReview wishes to thank the hundreds of people across Canada who shared their time, expertise, thoughtfulness, and passion as part of the collaborative consultation process to achieve Canada’s first inter-institutional agreement for pan-Canadian delegated research ethics review.
We especially thank the members of the CanReview Agreements Tactical Team for spearheading this critical component of the CanReview system.
About CanReview
CanReview is a pan-Canadian collaboration supported by the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Consortium to enable single research ethics review for multi-site clinical trials conducted across Canada, while ensuring the highest ethical standards. Collaborating with Research Ethics Boards, research teams, Indigenous community members, institutions and sponsors, patients and family partners and others, we are developing a system to enhance efficiencies and increase Canada’s competitiveness, expand clinical trials to underserved, rural and remote locations, and promote equitable access to trial participation. Together, we are building a Canada-wide ethics review system that benefits all people in Canada. Get started with CanReview at www.canreview.ca.