The role of a Trial Manager is often considered a hybrid role, covering both research and managerial activities. In most Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), trial managers are employed in either a professional services/managerial or research/academic job family – neither of which quite suit the role. A lack of a structured career pathway can make professional development for trial managers difficult.
We believe there are advantages and disadvantages to employment in either of the currently available job families and we’re exploring whether an alternative “third pathway” might be more suited to this specialist research role.
As outlined in our professional development strategy, we are keen to explore job families and career pathways for trial management staff.
We would like to ask UKTMN members who are based in HEIs to complete a short survey to let us know personal experiences and preferences in order for us to understand the views of trial management professionals. There are some questions within the survey regarding professional accreditation too, which we are also investigating.
https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/uktmn-survey-for-trial-managers-trial-management-job-fam
Though we are aware of issues relating to professional development for trial management professionals in both HEIs and NHS, at the moment, this survey is only for those based in HEIs. We will be working on understanding job families and professional development opportunities with NHS-based trial managers via other means.
Please note, we have also sent a survey to all UKCRC Registered CTUs, in order to collect CTU-level data. The CTU survey is separate to the one linked above, which requires an individual response.
The survey will close on Tuesday 2 August 2022 and we anticipate it taking no longer than 5 minutes to complete.
If you have any questions, please do get in touch with us via [email protected]
