Background: The recent legislation on clinical trials, as the Italian Determination 809/2015 about Phase 1 studies and the European Regulation 536/2014, definitively imposes the transition from a “physician addicted” research to the acknowledgment of specific skills, such as those of clinical research coordinators (CRCs) and research nurses. However, the national collective health contracts allow the employment of these professionals only through atypical contracts that, due to “jobs act”, will soon be banned, causing a large professional vacuum. Before the deadline extension granted by Government, we decided to map how much the problem was widespread among the CRCs. Methods: In November 2016 an anonymous web survey has been addressed to CRCs from Gruppo Italiano Data Manager. The survey, preceded by a brief written description of the aims, was composed by 7 items focused on the problem of the imminent expiration of contracts. Results: 231 CRCs completed the survey, with a prevalence of participants from Emilia Romagna (22%), Piemonte (13%), Lombardia (12.5%) and Veneto (10%). The majority of respondents (78%) worked through an atypical contract, while few can count on more stable type of employment (7.4% fixed term contract and 14.6% open-ended one). The most virtuous region is Emilia Romagna (37.5% of the open-ended contracts), followed by Piemonte (21.9%) and Lombardia (18.8%). The 67.5% of respondents will be affected by the jobs act problem, with multiple contract expiration timing: 32% from January to April 2017; 23% from May to August 2017; 23% from September to December 2017; 17.3% from Jan 18; 4.7% unknown. Interestingly, about 50 CRCs were unwilling to participate in the survey, now demoralized from the age-issue of the lack of professional recognition. Conclusions: The recent extension granted by our Government has only postponed a problem that should be quickly resolved. Where a such large number of CRCs will remain unfilled, it would create a vacuum of skilled work force that can hardly be covered by physicians. Whereas these numbers are understated and the problem also affects another big ghost of clinical research (research nurses), in the absence of a permanent solution, Italy is unlikely to meet the quality standards imposed by Europe. This will be reflected in a loss of appealing to the pharmaceutical market but mostly in a slump of therapeutic options for patients.