Early drug development at EORTC has always been subject to structural changes to adapt to the rapid changes that occur in oncological drug development. The expertise of early drug developers has always been cross-fertilised with disease-/tumour-oriented groups and also backwards to the laboratory research groups. This results in the establishment of a solid and dedicated network of medical oncologists with focused expertise in cancer drug development. The EORTC Data Center is fully equipped with all expertise to support clinical research activities and includes regulatory, safety, and quality assurance desks. The EORTC New Drug development Programme (NDDP) provides methodological expertise to early clinical trials and coordinates phase I and phase II studies addressing various approaches. Through NDDP, the early clinical groups and the disease-/tumour-oriented groups have created specific networks to address early drug development in specific tumour types. This results in very efficient networks which have the resources and the patients to address and conduct challenging clinical trials in a standardised fashion ensuring the highest standards in cancer treatment.