Victoria University has launched a new post-graduate diploma in clinical research, claiming to be the only qualification of its kind in New Zealand, as part of a wider partnership on research, teaching and technology transfer with the Capital & Coast District Health Board (C&C DHB). The diploma is a distance learning course that will provide clinical researchers with, among other things, the capabilities to pursue drug development and conduct clinical trials, and will be taught mostly online by the university’s staff, together with clinicians from the C&C DHB and the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand. According to the university, its Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Research, which begins in July, “takes the best of both the academic and clinical health worlds to strengthen clinical research.” U.S.-based CRO PRA International recently opened in New Zealand, saying the country was a key location for clinical studies in skin cancer, multiple sclerosis and asthma. PRA cited traditionally high recruitment rates across major therapeutic areas such as cardiology, respiratory diseases and gastrointestinal conditions; an efficient regulatory environment; and counter-seasonality for trials involving allergies or influenza.