Application Deadline: June 15, 2022

We are seeking to appoint a full-time research governance coordinator to be based in Harar, Ethiopia. The role is to support the research conducted in the Hararghe Health Research (HHR) partnership. The post holder will be instrumental in providing support and advice to HHR researchers including research material preparation, publication rules and regulations, grant-seeking, ensuring standards are maintained and in accordance with Human Research, national regulation, legislation and jurisdictional policies. 

Background

Hararghe Health Research (HHR) is a collaborative research effort between Haramaya University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Current research projects include Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance network (CHAMPS, http://champshealth.org/), Maternal Infection Study, Mortality due to Bacteria Resistant to Antibiotics (MBIRA), Invasive Bacterial Disease (IBD), pneumococcal and meningococcal surveillance studies. The post-holder will work with investigators, study staff, health-care providers, local authorities, sponsoring agents and Haramaya University to support ethical clearance, effective running of these studies, publication of scientific outputs and to identify new opportunities for grant funding. 

Principal Duties and responsibilities

The post holder is a specialized research professional working with and under the direction of the Principal Investigators (PIs). While the PIs are primarily responsible for the overall design, conduct, and management of studies, the post holder is responsible to ensure services and administrative systems are in place for the accurate and appropriate conduct, review, monitoring and evaluation of studies under HHR. The post-holder will oversee ethical clearance and renewal, delivery points of studies, prepare reports to regulatory bodies as required, ensure public involvement in projects and publications in accordance to donors and journal requirements, seek additional grants, and alert the study team about new grant calls. The research governance coordinator is the main liaison between scientific and administrative teams.

General Administrative

• Coordinates PIs, research coordinators, units, departments, and central administration to help ensure that research and related activities are performed in accordance with government regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.
• Leads the development and implementation of systems and implementation of best practice policy, procedures, and standardised systems within HHR to improve the conduct and governance of studies in collaboration with the governing body, managers, clinicians, patients, consumers and sponsors.
• Provide information, education and advice on research governance matters to stakeholders involved in the conduct and management of HHR research projects in accordance with national and local policies, guidelines and other reference material adopted by the jurisdiction
• Monitors relevant regulatory and policy developments to ensure changes are incorporated into local policies and procedures in a timely manner.
• Assists the study research coordinators in ensuring that all key personnel or persons engaged in the research project have met training requirements in accordance with regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.
• Checks compliance and monitoring efforts related to sponsored program administration and reports instances of noncompliance to the appropriate office. 
• Coordinates and facilitates monitoring and auditing visits. Notifies study team, and other offices.
• Works to respond to research audit findings and implement approved recommendations.
• Checks through local and sponsoring agency compliance and monitoring efforts related to human research participant protection and reports instances of noncompliance to the appropriate compliance office.
• Promotes the ethical conduct of research by reporting good faith suspicions of misconduct in research as defined within HHR/Haramaya university’s Research Integrity Policy and other misconduct other Code of Conduct.
• Assists with scientific and compliance reporting requirements in accordance with regulations and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.

Grant seeking and make sure alignment with the scope of HHR

• Actively seek calls for research grants and make sure they go with the scientific and research aspiration of HHR, and share with the team
• Assist researchers in the preparation of all the required documents for registration as required by funding agencies
• Assess feasibility and timeliness of proposals with the corresponding calls

Make sure Award Acceptance is proper (Terms & Conditions)

• Reviews and develops a familiarity with the contract or award terms and conditions. 
• Works with the PI to assure that the study is in compliance with all terms and conditions, including but not limited to number and types of human resource qualification needed for research to be carry out, ERB/IRB approval, conflict of interest disclosure, health and safety protections for participants and staff and any financial terms or conditions.

Work related to Regulatory Bodies 

• Assists PIs to prepare Ethical Review Board (ERB/IRB) and any other regulatory submission documents for approval as required by the protocol.
• Tracks HHR research projects regulatory documents and alerts and supports PIs to obtain renewals in a timely manner. 

Project Closeout

• Assists the PI in submission of accurate and timely closeout documents to applicable agencies, entities, and the sponsoring agency in accordance with regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.
• Arranges appropriate storage of study documents that will be maintained according to the policy or for the contracted length of time, whichever is longer.

Publications

• Helps researchers navigate the changing publication environment, including increasing the output and quality of scientific manuscripts
• Oversees creation of the HHR portfolio of publications from concept to distribution including planning and monitoring of publication schedules
• Coordinates the journal submission process, acting as the main point of contact for researchers, including providing support on online submission of manuscript for peer-review process as required by the targeted journal.
• Assures the quality of HHR's publications both in terms of review, compliance to the journal requirement and formatting;
• Organizes and manages publication-related expense requests, including payment of service providers, open access and other costs.
• Oversees proofreading of all publications to ensure accuracy.   
• Oversees the mailing of publications where necessary.
• Contributes to dissemination of publications in coordination with the HHR communication officer
• Manages HHR subscriptions to journals, magazines, newspapers, and digital resources.

Public Engagement

• Liaises with researchers, social sciences team and community representatives when public involvement in the research is required or recommended
• Ensures that applications for new grants that require public involvement are in accordance with call requirements
• Collaborates with researchers on public involvement statement in publications when required by the targeted journal. 

Duty Station: Harar

Number of posts: 1

Report to: PI/Co-PIs

Responsible for: Tracking ongoing research activities and promoting new ones   

Job Requirements

Essential Requirements 

• MSc/MPH in a health-related discipline
• A minimum of two years of related work experience
• Proven scientific communication capabilities
• Good communication skills
• Good computer literacy with proficiency in Microsoft applications
• Good management and organizational skills
• Fluent in written and spoken English

Desirable requirements:

• Training in Good Clinical Practice
• Competency in Research ethics

How to Apply

Haramaya University Human Resource and Development Directorate office, Administration Building 1st Floor, Room No. 114 at Haramaya’

CHAMPS office at College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University SGS building, Harar.

Haramaya University Liaison Office at Addis Ababa, Arat Kilo. Former Germany Cultural Institute Building Office No.15.

Send your credential and CV to the following email: mmekonnen@hararghe.org

Deadline for Application Within 10 (Ten) Working days after the announcement of this vacancy