THE ROLE OF THE INVESTIGATOR IN CLINICAL TRIALS
Publication date: October 23, 2025
Investigator status
The legal status of an investigator is determined based on Regulation (EU) No 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use and the Polish Act of 9 March 2023 on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use .
If a clinical trial is conducted by a team, the principal investigator is the primary investigator. If there is only one person responsible for conducting the clinical trial, the investigator is the primary investigator. This distinction is important because it determines who can, respectively, fulfill the roles of investigator and principal investigator.
The researcher may therefore be a doctor or, pursuant to Article 49 of Regulation 536/2014, a person exercising a profession with the necessary knowledge and experience in working with patients, who is permitted to be a researcher in a given Member State.
