Clinical Research Facilitator

The Clinical Research Facilitator will play a key role in the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital’s Research Office, linking with colleagues at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Research Office, to deliver an effective and efficient service to our research community in the set-up, approval, management and delivery of research.

The role will focus on non-commercial (hosted and sponsored) as well as commercially sponsored studies. This will include being responsible for completing sponsorship reviews for Trust sponsored studies and feasibility assessments and reviews for externally sponsored research projects. The role holder will also negotiate contracts with research partners and will assess, arrange and confirm the Trust’s capacity and capability to successfully deliver research.

The post holder will also have a key role to play in monitoring recruitment into research studies to ensure local and national benchmarks are met.

The post holder is required to follow Trust policies and procedures which are regularly updated including, but not limited to:
Information Governance

All staff must comply with information governance requirements. These includes statutory responsibilities (such as compliance with the Data Protection Act), following national guidance (such as the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice) and compliance with local policies and procedures (such as the Trust's Confidentiality policy). Staff are
responsible for any personal information (belonging to staff or patients) that they access and must ensure it is stored, processed and forwarded in a secure and appropriate manner.

Health and Safety

All post holders have a responsibility, under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and subsequently published regulations, to ensure that the Trust’s health and safety policies and procedures are complied with to maintain a safe working environment for patients, visitors and employees.

Smoking Policy

It is the Trust’s policy to promote health. Smoking, therefore, is actively discouraged. It is illegal within Trust buildings and vehicles.

The post holder will be engaged in the delivery of the research portfolio within the Trust through active engagement with the research teams, clinical and service support departments, the local CRN and industry partners.

He/she will ensure that all relevant study activities are accomplished effectively in line with the national performance metrics and NIHR CRN high level objectives. The post holder must be fully engaged in the mission of encouraging inclusion on the NIHR portfolio and accomplishment of the high-level objectives.

Patient/customer care (both direct and indirect)

Providing a key role in the delivery of an effective and efficient service for review and approval of research studies by assessing, arranging and confirming feasibility, capacity and capability to successfully deliver project objectives.

Provide concise and accurate information to researchers, internal and external to the Trust on our local and national systems for research approvals and governance review processes and requirements.

Policy development

To contribute to the maintenance and further development of Trust standard operating procedures and policies relating to management of research in the Trust.

To implement all policies relating to own area of work in line with the requirements of the UK Governance Framework for Health and Social Care Research.

Service development

Research Project Reviews, Approvals and Study Set-Up

To assist the Manager and other Clinical Research Facilitators in delivering an effective and efficient process for all research projects. For RBHT sponsored research projects this includes sponsorship review comprising finance review, risk assessment, protocol development, grant set-up administration etc, while for other studies the review is focussed on confirmation of capacity and capability and subsequent review and approval of amendments. All work includes ensuring that the review and approval of new studies is achieved within the specified national deadlines, identifying and managing the post holder’s own actions/priorities to ensure that any slippage is addressed.

To manage own portfolio of research projects for acceptance of sponsorship and HRA approval including:
To negotiate and agree terms on contracts using the model agreements available and in discussion with senior research staff, other Trusts and external organisations, with advice and guidance from the Trust Legal Advisor where appropriate. Ensuring that all parties are aware of their responsibilities under the agreements and any contractual and/or financial terms relevant to the research.

To review project proposals and identify where there are cost implications to the Trust, working with PIs, service departments, Trust finance and any other party to ensure each party understands and agrees to the relevant costing information.

To ensure that projects are set up and managed in accorda