East Africa Regional Liaison Scientist

Reference Number: EARLS-01-12

Category: Research, Science and Biotechnology

Salary: Competitive remuneration package will be offered to the right candidate depending on qualifications & experience

Location: KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi

Country: Kenya

Summary:

About 40% of the world's population, mostly those living in the poorest countries are at risk of malaria. Of these 2.5 billion people at risk, more than 500 million become severely ill with malaria every year and more than 1 million die from the effects of the disease.

The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) has been established to set up a global resource to ensure efficacious use of antimalarial drugs so that more of the right drugs can get to the right people at the right time, and to ensure the drugs will remain efficacious for longer.

WWARN will collate and analyse different types of data (clinical, molecular, in vitro, pharmacology and drug quality) on the effectiveness of antimalarial drugs in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In parallel, WWARN is also designing an internet-accessible database that will incorporate tools for health policy makers to view and analyse the data. The Network will work with data collection agencies in countries where malaria is common, and with health policy makers at national and global levels.

The East Africa Regional Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, is newly opened and is central to WWARN activities in East Africa. The regional WWARN centre is hosted by the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme in Nairobi.

Tenure: Until 30th June, 2013 in the first instance.

Responsible to: The WWARN East Africa Regional Scientific Director.

Responsibilities and duties of the post-holder

The WWARN East Africa Centre will play an important role in establishing effective partnerships with potential collaborators and data source groups. It will provide support and advice to research groups particularly regarding training in the use of WWARN research tools and services to facilitate the generation of high quality data.

The post-holder will be a local contact for WWARN in East Africa. S/he will undertake advocacy and technical support activities in support of the WWARN mission. The post will report to the WWARN Regional Scientific Director, who in turn reports to the WWARN Executive Director.

Key Duties

The East Africa Regional Liaison Scientist will undertake the following, in collaboration with the Regional Scientific Director:

Networking and capacity building

Identify research groups in the region and develop partnerships with WWARN to extend the capacity for generating high quality data, encourage data analysis and facilitate data submission to the WWARN repository:

• Engage with research groups to encourage data submission and communicate proper use of the informatics system for efficient data sharing and proper use of database tools.
• Develop quality control and quality assurance procedures and build capacity at research groups that are likely to share data.
• Engage and assist research groups in pre-study clinical efficacy design, quality control and assurance, as well as data management and analysis.
• Encourage and support research groups to use standard data formats that will permit both comparison of data from disparate sources and pooled analyses.

Communications and advocacy

Support the dissemination of information about WWARN activities, including:

• Contribute to internal and external communications including giving ideas for WWARN newsletters articles, participating in writing publications for peer reviewed journals and presentations at international meetings.
• Produce a bi-monthly report for submission to the WWARN headquarters to ensure continuous feedback between central and sub-regional WWARN management, research groups and other networks.
• Interface with the Heads and Coordinators of the WWARN scientific groups (clinical, molecular, in vitro, pharmacology and drug quality surveillance) to support the activities of all modules
• Organise sub-regional workshops and meetings to elicit feedback from primary data sources on needs for and concerns about the WWARN network and database

Specifications

Essential Criteria:

• University degree in a medically-related discipline such as pharmacology and Immunology. And a post graduate qualification in a relevant field either at Masters or PhD level.
• Experience of conducting clinical trials in a developing country setting, preferably in the malaria field;
• Experience of how to establish, document, and monitor operational and QA procedures;
• Strong diplomatic skills and the ability to communicate with researchers and senior officials working in different cultures;
• An awareness of the issues involved in obtaining data relating to human subjects;
• Availability and willingness to travel extensively to malaria field sites in Africa.
• Ability, skills and confidence to communicate effectively orally and in writing in English.
• Willing to be based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge and experience of clinical surveillance or an epidemiological project, or comparable experience;
• Experience or knowledge of in vitro and/or pharmacokinetic and/or molecular studies

Application Procedure

Log into the website of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme: www.kemri-wellcome.org. CAREERS & TRAINING section, choose the option of VACANCIES.

Register as a user, then view the post and click on the button: "Apply for this job".

Candidates must supply an email and telephone contact that will be used when offering interviews.

The application closing date is 10th February, 2012.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.