Head of Partner Liaison & Planning B8b

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the full job description & person specfication

• Act as a senior leader within the RDN, providing strategic direction and guidance
• Work as part of a community of senior leaders across the national network, exercising shared leadership and promoting the consistency of experience across a nationally-harmonised Study Support Service
• Co-develop and lead on national projects as required
• Collaborate with National and RRDN Specialty and Settings Leaders to align regional operational activities with national strategic objectives
• Offer strategic leadership to research delivery sites, contributing to strategic planning (including the development of three-year strategies) and proactively tackling operational challenges as an active partner
• Lead the implementation and cascade of a range of national strategic directives within the region and the local RRDN, reporting on local learnings, successes and challenges

BUSINESS PLANNING

Contribute to collective national business planning for the Study Support and Partner Liaison services

Contribute to coordinating, reviewing, evaluating and approving research site delivery plans, and have delegated responsibility for periodically performance monitoring against those plans to ensure that RDN funding is being used appropriately and effectively

Lead on regional business planning for the Study Support Service and Partner Liaison functions, ensuring effective implementation and reporting

INFORMATION & ADMINISTRATION

• Understand and interpret highly complex information, data and situations to inform plans and make decisions. This may include communicating and presenting to a variety of audiences and the facilitation of collaborative discussions
• Provide leadership and support for the implementation of Information Governance best practice within the Study Support Service
• Be responsible for the implementation and effectiveness of the processes that ensure data integrity within relevant RDN systems, enabling the identification of potential concerns and patterns and supporting RDN customers and partners in resolving issues.
• Promote the use of digital innovation and effective Business Intelligence across all the Study Support Service and Partner Liaison functions, working closely with the Data and Analytics Senior Manager to build both the team's and stakeholders' capabilities in these areas
• Have oversight of the activities that support study sponsors, funders and investigators to access data to enable them to effectively manage the delivery of their studies (and enable them to request support from the RDN as required)
• Lead on the implementation of the national costing and attribution tools and processes in line with national policy and UK wide guidance, acting as senior escalation point for the UK community of practice for costing and AcoRD Specialists as necessary
• Lead on the implementation of DHSC RDN Portfolio Policy Compliance to ensure that the process, procedure and monitoring of studies enables sponsors / delegates, research delivery sites and funders to understand and adhere to their roles and responsibilities. For example, this may include satisfying the Eligibility Criteria for NIHR support before they are included on the portfolio and subsequently adhering to the expected actions and requirements set out in the NIHR RDN Portfolio Terms and Conditions
• Lead on the oversight of the RDN portfolio across all specialities and settings to proactively identify potential issues and opportunities, working as an active partner to resolve and action follow-up activity
• Contribute to the Strategic oversight of the RDN Portfolio, including:
  • Undertaking strategic portfolio oversight activities to identify opportunities and challenges within the capacity and capability of the research system to deliver future research. This will include ensuring that regional specialities, settings and localities meet the agreed definition of a balanced portfolio
  • Supporting portfolio oversight activities undertaken on the current portfolio as requested
  • Identifying and addressing impact on health inequalities at all stages of research delivery

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT

• Oversee the regional implementation of the Study Support Service, ensuring its effectiveness and alignment with regional and national objectives
• Oversee the regional implementation of the Study Support Service, working as part of a national network, to support with:
  • Developing and sharing regional intelligence to inform site and PI identification, eligibility and clinical data to ensure effective planning, placement and performance monitoring (on request) of studies
  • Assisting in the identification of sites and Principal Investigators, making the best use of clinical data combined with an understanding of health inequalities to inform placement of studies
  • Undertaking eligibility reviews
  • Providing health or care intelligence to the on request study performance service and the Active National Delivery service
  • Supporting funders and sponsors in study design to optimise deliverability, including providing early feedback on protocols
  • Advising on study deliverability and undertaking deliverability assessments when requested, including giving consideration to equitable patient access/areas of high patient need
• Oversee the alignment and coordination of the National Specialties & Setting Leads support for funders and sponsors in study design, deliverability and participant access to bring compatibility with the advice and guidance provided by the Study Support Service to further ensure optimal planning, placement and 'on request' performance monitoring of studies
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