Job Description

Salary for this Role:

• From \xc2\xa352,600, subject to skills and experience

Job Title:

Research Contract Specialist

Reports to: Steve Gamblin

Closing Date: 01/Oct/2023 23.59 GMT

:

Human Biology Facility: Research Contract Specialist

Reports to:

Director Human Biology Facility

Contact term:

This is a full-time, permanent position on Crick terms and conditions of employment.

This is a full-time, permanent position reporting to the Director Human Biology Facility, with matrix working with the Head of Legal, based at the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s world-class laboratories in central London and supported by flexible working and family-friendly policies.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Research Contracts Specialist for the Human Biology Facility. In close partnership with colleagues in the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s Legal team and compliance functions, the successful candidate will lead all aspects of contract development, negotiation and business / legal risk management for human biology and human research at the Crick.

The Human Biology Facility is a new and dedicated team to support experimental research in human systems. You will be an essential part of the team building the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s capability and capacity for human research. The facility will mobilise, and expand, existing infrastructure, skills and the expertise required to enable Crick scientists to conduct their research in human samples, human tissue and model systems. In close partnership with colleagues in the Crick Legal team, you will ensure that this is all achieved within an effective and efficient contract and legal framework, including research conducted to Good Clinical Practice (GCP).

We have a declared objective to drive benefits for human health through fostering interactions between laboratory scientists, clinicians and those engaged in translational research, to create a melting pot in which expertise from academic, clinical and industrial worlds converge. The development and efficient execution of contracts e.g. confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements and research collaboration partnerships will be pivotal to enabling and accelerating the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s mission to understand more about how living things work to help improve treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease through its academic, charity and industry partnerships.

The Research Contract Specialist and their colleagues, in research and business functions, will engage with clinicians, hospitals, Biomedical Research Centres, biotech, pharma and medtech companies to develop collaborative efforts between Crick scientists and clinicians, and to improve access to human samples and data. Ultimately you would lead project-focused matrix teams to efficiently - and to best practices for compliance, research quality and integrity for human studies \xe2\x80\x93 enable external partnerships and deliver executed contracts; all towards helping improve treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease.

Key responsibilities

Overall, the Research Contract Specialist will be responsible for a wide range of contracts, agreements, and supporting decisions on business and legal risk. The successful candidate will be expected to be able to coordinate and manage project focused matrix teams, spanning a wide range of competencies, and interact and negotiate accordingly on the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s behalf with external partners.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

To act as a single-point-of-contact within the Human Biology Facility and the Crick for all matters relating to contracts and agreements relevant to human research projects.

To develop external partnerships and a network that facilitates access to clinical cohorts, samples, biobanks, data and repositories via efficient and pragmatic contracts and agreements.

To be a source of expertise and thought-leader on legal matters pertaining to human research and the use of human samples and data in research and collaborations.

Generates dashboard reporting to stakeholders in monthly/quarterly/annual tracking of all clinical trial contractual metrics.

To support and engage with the application for appropriate research governance and risk management e.g. development of policies, contract templates, standard procedures, and (where relevant) working to good clinical practice (GCP).

To encourage knowledge exchange and skills development across business and research groups and other platform teams so that more colleagues understand and engage with research agreements, contracts and the management of business / legal risk.

Consult with stakeholders and partners to solve simple and complex problems related to research studies and applies knowledge of applicable regulations, internal policies and procedures, and logistics requirements of conducting research.

To work closely with business colleagues e.g. in Finance, Grants, Translation, Operations, and as an influential member of the Crick\xe2\x80\x99s Legal team to provide the best legal and business support to international, world-class human research.

Key experience and competencies

The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values: bold, open, and collegial, in addition to the following:

Essential qualifications, experience and competencies:

Relevant degree or equivalent experience.

Strong experience and/or knowledge of the depth and breadth of matters, considerations and issues pertaining to human research, intellectual property, contracts and agreements.

A good appreciation of the adjacent areas of science and the regulatory, ethical and legal frameworks that govern human research, including GCP.

Proactive, pragmatic, user centric approach to delivery, with the ability to identify and understand different users\xe2\x80\x99 needs, and to reflect those in reasonable adjustments to agreements and templates, with appropriate risk management.

Ability to develop processes and procedures compliant with ethics, legislation and best practice and to provide guidance to the team, wider Crick community and external collaborators such that compliance is encouraged and facilitated.

Experience of leading matrix teams, with a personal reputation for motivating high performance and responsiveness to users\xe2\x80\x99 needs / customer focus.

Proven ability to build relationships and to collaborate effectively with business partners and research groups and leaders in a range of academic or clinical or industrial settings as well as the ability to communicate well with colleagues at different levels, being able to engage meaningfully with both scientific community and operational staff.

Find out what benefits the Crick has to offer:

For more information on our great pay and benefits package please click here:

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:

We welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, pregnancy, age, disability, or civil partnership, marital or family status. We particularly welcome applications from people who are Minority Ethnic as they are currently underrepresented in the Crick at this level.

Diversity is essential to excellence in scientific endeavour. It increases breadth and perspective, leading to more innovation and creativity. We want the Crick to be a place where everyone feels valued and where diversity is celebrated and seen as part of the foundation for our Institute\xe2\x80\x99s success.

The Crick is committed to creating equality of opportunity and promoting diversity and inclusivity. We all share in the responsibility to actively promote dignity, respect, inclusivity and equal treatment and it is our aim to ensure that these principles are reflected and implemented in all strategies, policies and practices.

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Francis Crick Institute