2026 SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit: What's the Biggest Policy Gap Delaying Integrated, Community-Based Research Being the Norm?

Jennifer Byrne, CEO and founder, Javara, credits SCRS as a valuable part of the broader site landscape, pointing to its role as a collective voice that helps inform and educate legislators on what it actually takes to improve the drug development process. From a public policy standpoint, she argues that much of the necessary work centers on financial reform rather than operational fixes.

Byrne emphasizes that building reliable infrastructure, and raising the bar for consistent quality delivery across the research ecosystem, requires sustained investment rather than a study-by-study, transactional approach. She points to legislative opportunities, whether through government funding or public-private partnerships, that could support this kind of infrastructure investment.

In her view, building a clinical research program piecemeal fails to account for the real costs involved, including preparing the next generation of physicians to become investigators and developing a workforce that often doesn’t come out of college with a formal clinical research background.

Ultimately, Byrne frames this as a financial and infrastructure support gap, one she believes SCRS and similar associations are well positioned to advocate for more forcefully as a unified call to action within the industry.