Job Description

Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading dementia research charity dedicated to diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure. Backed by our passionate scientists and supporters, we’re challenging the way people think about dementia, bringing together the people and organisations who can speed up progress, and investing in research to make life-changing breakthroughs possible.

Today, the diseases that cause dementia are diagnosed when symptoms like memory loss start. To have the best chance of halting them, we need to intervene decades earlier, when these diseases first start to take hold.

The charity’s landmark Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Diseases (EDoN) initiative is already bringing together experts in data science, digital technology and neurodegeneration from over 49 universities, institutes, research projects, patient cohorts and technology companies from across UK, Europe and the US.  With funders including Bill Gates, this innovative consortium of partners and collaborators, led by Alzheimer’s Research UK, is collecting and analysing huge amounts of clinical and digital health data (like sleep, gait, heart rate, smartphone interactions etc.) to create machine learning models to identify patterns of early neurodegenerative disease. The ultimate goal is to integrate the measurement of the most useful digital markers into a cost-effective, non-invasive digital Toolkit that doctors can use to detect specific dementia-causing diseases at a population-wide scale.

As Head of Research Informatics, reporting to our Director of EDoN, your remit will be to lead, develop and implement a strategy with the aim of transforming the detection and potential diagnosis of the diseases which underlie dementia.  Our aim is to develop a global solution by bringing together the key players in data science, clinical, technological and analytical research, to derive a diagnostic ‘fingerprint’ from multi-modal data.

Responsibilities:

• Liaising with both our Research and Policy & Public Affairs Teams to develop the early detection/diagnosis approach.
• Working with external experts to build up a network of partners from academia and the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and MedTech sectors who can contribute to the initiative.
• Provide scientific leadership and technical know-how for the development of diagnostic algorithms and disease-specific fingerprints.
• Lead and manage a multi-discipline project team with both internal and external members.

Requirements:

• Degree or equivalent biomedical research, technical expertise.
• Project Management and coordination experience, ideally for clinical, data or technology projects.
• Design and delivery of digital products, such as software applications, toolkits, and IoTs/wearables.
• Foster and strengthen strategic collaborations in  public-private partnership setting.
• Excellent analytical, organisational and communication skills.
• Leading, coaching and supporting colleagues whilst delegating and empowering direct reports.
• A strong team player with first class communications and the ability to explain complex information to a range of stakeholders.
• Driven and motivated you will be able to demonstrate the ability to encourage ownership and responsibility of team members and be committed to delivering results.
• Strive for continuous improvement with the ability to see the bigger picture.

For an initial discussion about the Head of Research Informatics role, please call Rob Gill, our retained consultant, at Red International Resourcing on 0 7 9 7 1 2 2 3 4 3 5 in confidence.