2025 DIA Global Annual Meeting: The Role of Leadership in Shaping the Future of Clinical Research
In an interview with ACT senior editor Andy Studna at the 2025 DIA Global Annual Meeting, Carie Pierce, SVP, global head of growth & business development, DIA, reflects on the importance of leadership to drive progress in clinical research amid evolving regulatory and funding challenges.
ACT: Could you elaborate on the importance of leadership in this current landscape of clinical research being impacted by regulatory and administrative shifts?
Pierce: The panel we had this morning for the opening session I thought was incredible, because you had the FDA, EMA, MHRA all sitting there together with a patient and also having a scientific publisher and a few others on the panel, to be able to debate the value of academic research, and funding cuts, and how is that going to impact science long term? How do these really novel discoveries happen? They're happening in academic labs, so being able to provide a platform for those conversations to happen by having sometimes a little bit of conflict and debate. Our mission has always been to be that neutral space, but I think being neutral really means bringing all of those varied perspectives together and making sure that the conversation, the dialog, continues and evolves. People don't grow if you don't challenge and push each other, and I think that's really what DIA, our platform allows us to do, bring together the best of ideas, but bring together opposing ideas, and make sure that at the end of the day, it's really for the advancement of care for patients.
