Clinical Trial RACI Matrix
This is a practical guide to building a raci matrix for a clinical trial project — a grid mapping tasks to who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed, adapted to the realities of planning and running a clinical trial.
What a RACI Matrix is
A raci matrix is a grid mapping tasks to who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. For the full concept and how it works in general, see RACI Matrix. On a clinical trial project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Clinical Trial project
Clinical Trial projects live or die on planning and running a clinical trial. A well-built raci matrix gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how clinical trial projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Activities as rows
- Roles as columns
- One Accountable per row
- Responsible / Consulted / Informed
Clinical Trial-specific considerations
Tailor the raci matrix to the risks that most often derail clinical trial projects:
- Regulatory and ethics approval
- Patient recruitment
- Data integrity
Example
On a real clinical trial project, the raci matrix would be shaped by planning and running a clinical trial. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — regulatory and ethics approval, patient recruitment, data integrity — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.