Projects Officer (Scientific Team)

Beacon (formerly known as Findacure) is a UK-based charity that is building a united rare disease community with patient groups at its heart. Our charity upskills rare disease patient groups through trainings, guided programmes, community projects and research initiatives. We help these groups maximise their impact and deliver change for the world's often neglected rare disease patients. 

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OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

Beacon is seeking a Projects Officer to join our Scientific Team. Alongside the Scientific Projects Manager, the CEO and Administrative Officer, the Projects Officer (Scientific Team) will be responsible for delivering Beacon’s work within REMEDi4ALL; an EU-funded drug repurposing research initiative. 

About REMEDi4ALL

Drug Repurposing takes a drug already approved for use in one condition and collects evidence of its safety and efficacy in a completely different indication. As a development route, drug repurposing has great potential to treat some of the world’s rarest conditions due to its relatively low cost and potential speed. However, there are a wide range of barriers that exist to repurposing. 

REMEDi4ALL is a drug repurposing platform which aims to break these barriers and accelerate the translation of promising science into newly repurposed drugs. REMEDi4ALL is delivered by a consortium of 24 organisations across the EU and UK, who collectively aim to repurpose drugs for all conditions, including rare and infectious diseases and cancer. This initiative is funded by the EU for a period of 5 years, beginning in September 2022. 

As a partner within the consortium, Beacon is involved in the development and delivery of two work packages:

1. Building an engaged community of those interested in drug repurposing across Europe, with a particular focus on ensuring patient-centric research. 
2. Developing a multi-platform set of training for patient groups, academics and industry members to understand the end-to-end process of drug repurposing. 

The Projects Officer (Scientific Team) position

As our Projects Officer (Scientific Team) you will work on the implementation and administration of Beacon’s two REMEDi4ALL work packages. This will include creating and delivering live and written training materials across webinars, podcasts, mentoring programmes, a residential training school and e-learning resources.

Alongside this you will have the opportunity to support researchers and patient group leaders across Europe. You will learn first hand about the drug development process, while ensuring that patient input remains at the heart of our work. You will work closely with several live drug repurposing projects - and the scientific teams which support them - helping patient representatives to flourish in this research-focused environment.

Furthermore, you will have the chance to work alongside a range of rare disease patient groups, providing scientific support to Beacon’s empowerment and community projects as required.

The successful candidate will be a motivated and independent worker, able to make the most out of the opportunities to deliver projects and support an international consortium. You will have an interest and knowledge of the life sciences and a desire to utilise these skills to improve patient outcomes.

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PERSONAL SPECIFICATION

This is an entry to junior-level role, suitable for a scientific graduate or individual with professional experience in the life sciences industry, who has a desire to develop an exciting collaborative project within a small but ambitious UK charity.  

Essential

• Scientific degree or equivalent experience.
• A confident communicator with the ability to build strong working relationships.
• An ability to communicate complex scientific processes to a generalist audience in both written and spoken English.
• Excellent research skills, able to collate information from multiple sources.
• Recognition of the value of patient input in medical research.
• Good organisational skills with experience in managing and prioritising multiple tasks.
• Autonomous, proactive and a good problem solver.
• Fluent in written and spoken English with strong presentation skills.
• Computer literate and confident using all MS Office software.
• Understanding of, and commitment to, the objectives of Beacon.
• Ability to deliver occasional out of hours work to accommodate Beacon and REMEDi4ALLevents or travel in the UK and internationally

Desirable

• 2 years’ experience in the life sciences sector or a post-graduate scientific qualification (or equivalent).
• Experience or understanding of the drug development pipeline.
• Experience with educational training programmes or e-learning platforms.