Clinical Research Fellow - Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy - 105

at  University of Birmingham

POSITION DETAILS

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy, School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £43,455 to £73,506
Clinical
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to March 2026
Closing date: 25th February 2025

BACKGROUND

We are seeking an experienced Clinical Research Fellow at ST3 level or above to join an established multi-disciplinary team of clinicians, exercise physiologists, medical sociologists and clinical trialists in an 3-year study to explore whether lifestyle can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes (T1D). The fellow is expected to register for a 1 year MSc by research and will be trained in exercise physiology, research methodology and clinical trials.
The way we manage Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is on the cusp of major change. We now have the tools to identify people at risk of future T1D and to put in place the measures to support, offer clinical trials and potentially offer therapies for prevention. The University of Birmingham leads a national screening programme, ELSA (elsadiabetes.nhs.uk), which offers general population screening for T1D. Families where children are identified at risk of T1D ask about the potential for lifestyle intervention to delay the development of T1D. Indeed, work we have undertaken previously as well as studies in animal models of T1D suggest that exercise can slow the development of this condition.
Training in screening for and managing early pre-symptomatic T1D, research methodology, patient and public involvement, literature reviewing, exercise physiology and trial design would be provided. Expertise from exercise physiologists, clinicians (both adult and paediatrics) will be made available from collaborators around the UK and Europe. There is also the potential to participate in and recruit from a wider European screening program – EDENT1FI ( www.edent1fi.eu/ ), in which Birmingham is playing a leading role.
This is a 1 year fully funded clinical MSc by research through the University of Birmingham, with a potential opportunity to upgrade to a 3 year PhD subject to funding. We would welcome applications from aspiring clinical academics who are willing to work collaboratively and enthusiastically on a very clinical and topical research project.

ROLE SUMMARY

The purpose of this role is to:

• Obtain training and experience in clinical trials, exercise physiology, screening for and managing early presymptomatic type on Diabetes.
• Supporting a multidisciplinary team to undertake a feasibility study of the role of exercise in diabetes.
• Support a screening program for diabetes including supporting families identified at risk around clinical management of these early stages of diabetes.
• Supporting juniors and fellows in research and clinical training.
• Undertaking some clinical work.
• Undertaking unsupervised as well as supervised background reading of literature relating to this project.
• Contributing to research meetings.
• There will be some administrative tasks associated with this role.

MAIN DUTIES

• To coordinate recruitment of patients to the ELSA trials, including patient identification and consent and performance of trial-related procedures where relevant
• To assist with trial set-up and obtaining necessary local and national approvals (ethics, MHRA) and contribute to site file and data management under guidance of the trials coordinators and lead investigators.
• To carry out a literature review of the topic area.
• To gain sufficient research data and experience that will enable progression to a higher degree (PhD or MD). To comply with the terms and conditions set out in the fellowship and in the University of Birmingham’s graduate Programme of study.
• To contribute to the enhancement of scientific understanding of diabetes.
• To undertake prescribed research tasks and collection of research data.
• To prioritise tasks within the agreed work schedule to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion according to the timelines in the Elsa study programme.
• To suggest and contribute to the development of research techniques and methods in collaboration with colleagues.
• To contribute to writing bids for research grants.
• To disseminate research findings using appropriate and effective media such as publication, research seminars, etc.
• To provide guidance to other staff and students.
• To contribute to the production of research reports and high impact publications.
• To plan and develop research contributions to subject area using methodologies, critical evaluations, interpretations, analyses and other appropriate techniques.
• To participate in departmental and Diabetes-specific public engagement activities and initiatives.