As scleroderma is a rare disease, the collaborative nature of EUSTAR is essential for enabling large diverse datasets regarding patients with the condition to be analysed, to address clinical practice changing research questions.

EUSTAR centres can apply for access to an anonymised dataset from the EUSTAR database for use in a specific clinical project, by submitting a project application detailing the objectives, patient population, methodology, statistical analyses, expected results, and originality and feasibility of the project. Applications for clinical projects are reviewed by two reviewers selected from EUSTAR centres who assess the scientific quality, clinical relevance, and feasibility of the project.

These clinical projects lead to abstracts that are presented at international conferences and publications. These publications can be found on our Publications page.