Senior Research ManagerNHS

Job summary

This role provides an exciting opportunity for a highly organised, proactive individual to take on a senior post within the Schools imaging services based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT). They will require extensive experience of clinical research management under the NHS Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care and excellent understanding of National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) priorities. The post will be hosted by the Schools Research Department of Early Life Imaging, which delivers a clinical research portfolio of around 20 studies related to fetal, neonatal, paediatric and maternal imaging and health. The post-holder will also provide support to Principal Investigators (PIs) and research teams across the Schools other imaging services and research departments as part of a network of research governance and delivery experts.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will be responsible to the Director of Clinical & Research Imaging Operations and will provide advice to a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals and academics in managing the delivery of their assigned imaging research portfolio, including preparing new study applications and amendments, overseeing contracting arrangements and confirming proposed studies are appropriately costed and resourced. They will form effective relationships with Trust and University Research & Development offices and will line manage a small research administration team. They will also provide mentorship and training to other multi-disciplinary research delivery staff, including clinical research practitioners, nurses, midwives, radiographers and other scientific and technical staff and students.

Job description

• Provide expertise and leadership in the management of a portfolio of clinical research studies, especially with regards to the legal framework surrounding research, including Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Human Tissue Act (HTA), Research Ethics and Health Research Authority (HRA) regulations, including providing advice on specific regulatory questions applicable to both individual studies and the overall policies of the Department.
• Support PIs with the preparation of new study applications and amendments, including submitting for sponsorship review, HRA/REC/MHRA approval, overseeing contracting arrangements, and confirming appropriate study costings
• Ensure that study set up activities are completed within NIHRs 150-day (and any other relevant) targets, and that recruitment and management of studies within the Departments portfolio are proceeding to time and target.
• Provide supervision and line management to the research administrator team, ensuring they are assigned responsibilities corresponding to their knowledge and skills.
• Work closely with the Director of Clinical & Research Imaging Operations, Head of Early Life Imaging Research Department, Principal Investigators, Superintendent Research Radiographer and senior clinical and management teams to ensure efficiency in operational activities in the Department.
• Provide guidance to multi-disciplinary staff on issues relating to research governance; staff will include Research Nurses and Midwives, Radiographers, Clinical Research Practitioners, Clinicians, Scientists, and Developmental Psychologists.
• Act as an expert for all research governance matters, and be the nominated Departmental lead engaging with R&D teams across the University, GSTT and wider Kings Health Partners (KHP) (e.g. Research Grants, Information Governance, R&D Governance, Joint Research Office, KHP Clinical Trials Office)
• Represent the Department at relevant committees which concern research delivery (e.g. Facilities, IT, Governance)
• Network effectively with other Research Managers and research delivery teams within BMEIS, GSTTs Clinical Imaging & Medical Physics (CLIMP) Directorate, NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) and Healthtech Research Centre (HRC), Commercial Research Delivery Centre and beyond
• Communicate effectively and maintain a good working relationship with colleagues within the School, University, GSTT and wider NHS.
• Ensure that resources are used effectively, in line with stakeholders requirements, prioritising projects and tasks when necessary.
• Use initiative and creativity to resolve issues that might arise and identify issues that require onward escalation to clinical and/or research teams, investigators and senior management
• Maintain an organisational overview that can quickly and efficiently react to changes in the external environment, utilising the College and Trust change management processes where necessary.
• Proactively contribute to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and research inclusion initiatives to embed co-design and inclusion within our studies

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

About us

Within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine (FoLSM), the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences is a cutting-edge research and teaching School dedicated to development, translation and clinical application within medical imaging and computational modelling technologies. Our objective is to facilitate research and teaching guided by clinical questions and is aimed at novelty, understanding of physiology and pathophysiology as well as development of new diagnostic tools and therapies. In this way, basic science can be rapidly translated into clinical applications (and vice versa). The School consists of eight research departments: Cardiovascular Imaging, Cancer Imaging, Early Life Imaging, Imaging Chemistry & Biology, Biomedical Computing, Surgical & Interventional Engineering, Imaging Physics & Engineering and Digital Twins for Healthcare.

The Research Department of Early Life Imaging performs cutting-edge research dedicated to the development and use of the most advanced medical imaging (in particular MRI scanning) and computational methods. Ultimately, our vision is to develop new ways to diagnose, understand and treat illnesses that affect the human brain, heart and body as they develop during the crucial period around birth so that we can improve outcomes for children. Placed uniquely within St Thomas Hospital London, we are able to perform truly translational research, which extends from basic science to use in the hospital with patients.