Additional resources on this blog
Interview-based career profiles for this career area
Laura Cortesi, Senior Operational Study Manager Barbara Tizzano, Clinical Trial Manager
Career area: Clinical trial management
Clinical trials are a large-scale undertaking, and there is a range of roles that coordinate and oversee all aspects including site selection, communications with doctors, trial protocols, data management and analysis. The pharma sector, contract research organizations and hospitals, often employ PhD-qualified life scientists for these positions.
Roles and responsibilities
The most common area for life scientists to work in is in a coordinating role where tasks may include a subset of the following activities:
- Coordinating with the sites where the trial will take place (‘investigator sites’)
- Supporting or leading the design, writing and review of the study protocol, case report forms etc
- Ensuring that all ethical and regulatory aspects are considered, collecting relevant documentation, and preparing registration / approval of the trial
- Coordinating all aspects of the trial – for example, delivery of the medicine, patient recruitment via doctors, and schedule for activities associated with the trial with the clinical staff (nurses, doctors) who complete these (pre-assessments, treatment, follow-up)
- In some roles, answering patient questions
- Monitoring the ongoing trial – ensuring all data for the trial is accurately recorded and patients are tracked; following up on any adverse events
- Preparing for and attending internal meetings /calls to review timelines, milestones, budget; preparing for and attending external meetings/calls with vendors, site liaisons, regulatory authorities etc
- Working closely with other team-member e.g. the biostatisticians analysing the data and medical writers who will prepare the final documentation for regulatory submission / publication
These coordinating roles may involve work directly at the site of the trial, but there are also opportunities for home or office-based roles that involve coordinating clinical trials across multiple locations.
Additionally, there are other roles focused on the management and analysis of clinical trial data. This area can be particularly interesting for life-scientists with quantitative or computational backgrounds. Entry-level roles in the data management area generally involve working in electronic data systems to encapture and track data about each participant in the trial, and resolving queries and issues with the data. More senior roles might involve more strategic input on data strategy, data clean-up and analysis etc, as well as supervising more junior staff.
Knowledge and skills
In our careers & skills survey, 7 clinical trial management professionals told us about the competencies they used most often. The most commonly selected competencies were:
- Resilient problem-solving (selected by 86% of the respondents)
- Teamwork (71%)
- Effective communication (71%)
- Organization (57%)
- Developing & focusing on a clear vision (57%)
Career entry and progression
Entry-level roles include ‘clinical research assistants’ and traineeships. Direct entry to operational roles may be possible particularly at CROs (contract research organizations) – PhDs often enter as ‘clinical research associate’ (CRA) or ‘clinical research monitors’. Some additional training (e.g. online courses providing an overview of clinical research) will increase your chance of entry into an operational role rather than a traineeship. With experience, you will likely advance to more senior roles such as clinical project manager or clinical research coordinator.
Example job titles
- Clinical research associate / scientist
- Clinical investigator / researcher
- Clinical Trial / Study Coordinator / Lead / Project Manager
- Clinical research data specialist
- Clinical data associate
- Clinical data team lead
- Clinical research data analyst
- Biostatistician
Why consider this career area?
In our careers and skills survey, scientists working in clinical research told us that they appreciate that their work:
- is intellectually stimulating
- involves collaboration/ working in a team
- provides opportunities for personal growth
Want to learn more?
Sources / further information
- Overview articles:
- Tooling up: Clinical trials careers – Science Careers
- Clinical Research Associate – PROSPECTS Job profile
- Career opportunities in clinical research, University of Delaware
- From the bench to the pharmacy: The life of a clinical research scientist in drug development – Science Careers
- Types of clinical research jobs – UC Davis
- A career in clinical research – new scientist jobs
- Clinical options for basic scientists – Science Careers
- Careers for Scientists – Clinical Research – BitesizedBio
- Resources
- InterSECT Job Sim simulation library – including:
- General careers books, including ‘Alternative careers in science leaving the ivory tower‘ by Cynthia Robbins-Roth and ‘Career opportunities in biotechnology and drug development‘ by Toby Freedman.
Data roles
- Overview articles / resources
Further internal resources
For EMBL fellows
Within EMBL, further internal resources (e.g. recorded career seminars) can be found on our career exploration intranet pages.
Informational interviews
For all career areas, we highly recommend first learning more about the careers using the resources above, then conducting informational interviews to gain further insights directly from former PhDs working in career areas that interest you.
Last update: November 2022
