Winners of Research Administrators Awards announced

Behind every clinical trial there are great research administrators. They are skilled multitaskers who play a pivotal role in ensuring that high quality research trials go ahead, are accessible to patients, meet ethical and governance requirements and get across the finish line. Yet the importance of their enormous contribution to health research is sometimes overlooked. To highlight their pivotal work, OHMR is running the first ever NSW Health Research Administrator Awards. This initiative has been driven by the Research Ethics and Governance Unit, which has also sponsored a range of related activities over the month of September. 

What do research administrators do?

“Research administration is a vocation that is widely taught on the job with no formal or clear-cut education or career pathways,” says Kylie Becker, Program Manager at OHMR. Becker is co-creator and key organiser of the awards. “The role attracts people from a diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds. There are 100 research administrators across NSW Health,” Becker adds.  

 
Acknowledging this important role 

Since 2015, 25 September has been the official globally recognised National Research Administrator Day. This year, OHMR celebrated the importance of this work by creating the NSW Health Administrator Awards. Nominations and votes for the four awards categories took place during August. Award winners were announced on Friday 27 September at an NSW Ethics and Governance Roundtable, which was also a networking event. Each award winner will receive an educational opportunity, such as a ticket to attend a health sector conference.  

Winners reflect on their rewarding careers  

“As well as celebrating Research Administration staff, we hope that this award will showcase their great work and encourage others to pursue a career in this field,” says Becker. To provide a quick snapshot of their diverse and important roles, we spoke to the winners about their award and their important work in supporting NSW Health clinical trials: 

Award: Amazing leadership, knowledge sharing and support to other research administrators​ (voted by research administrators)   

Winner: Lucia Smith: Research Governance Manager, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network 

 “I support researchers to achieve successful continuation and completion of their amazing projects in paediatric healthcare. This helps ensure that children receive cutting-edge world-class, high quality and safe evidence-based treatments. Every day I am in constant contact with external parties such as universities and research offices of Local Health Districts. I review contracts, write briefs, troubleshoot and engage in strategic planning. I also liaise with different clinical research teams about ethics, finance, medical student and PhD projects.  

 “My work has helped support access to targeted gene therapy treatments for patients with rare diseases, and more tailored precision medicine projects for oncology (cancer) patients. I have also helped to support clinical trials for advanced therapies for life-limiting chronic diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was involved in expediting reviews of proposed covid research. The job requires attention to detail, a sense of humour and a Teflon coat! So, an award like this is very validating in making us feel our work is meaningful, valued and important.””  

 
Award: Amazing leadership, knowledge sharing and support to other research administrators​ (voted by research administrators) 

Winner: Rebecca Lavery, Research Ethics and Governance Coordinator, Northern NSW Local Health District 

“After seven years in this role, I am honoured to have been nominated for this award by my peers and it’s a privilege to share this recognition with my dedicated colleagues. Research administrators act as navigators and a conduit through the research process. My job involves streamlining processes and overseeing regulatory aspects of their research, so they receive approval to commence their valuable work. I am constantly reviewing trial proposals, liaising between researchers and our Human Research Ethics Committee and the Chief Executive and ensuring research activities adhere to relevant regulations, ethical guidelines, and our institutional policies.  

“I’m particularly proud of my work streamlining the Site-Specific Assessment process by leveraging Access Requests, which has saved researchers and our office from unnecessary administration at the time of application and for the life of the study. More recently, I established an External Researcher Application process that adopts a risk-based approach, minimising the need for excess evidence to address potential risks unless necessary.” 

Award: Early career Research Administrators Award (voted by a subcommittee of Research Managers and REGU staff) 

Winner: Smriti Robert – Administration Officer at St Vincent’s Health Sydney Research Office 

“I have only been a research administrator for eight months, so I feel very grateful and privileged to be given this recognition. This award would not have been possible without my fantastic, highly skilled team manager and colleagues. They have actively supported me in this role, showed confidence in my skills and potential and generously imparted knowledge, guidance and feedback to contribute to my career growth.  

 
“My job is very rewarding and involves being a resourceful bridge between the researchers, study co-ordinators, sponsors, community and the research office team. It is very satisfying to know that the work I do is helping improve patient’s lives and health outcomes. I juggle many interesting tasks such as managing the research office inbox, ethics and governance initial eligibility checks and Research Ethics Governance Information System (REGIS) management (which includes applications, amendments and research milestones). To thrive in this role, you need good communication skills, the ability to juggle different projects and maintain knowledge of the industry, policies and user platforms (such as REGIS) to assist the research community.  

Award: Excellent Customer Service (voted by the research community) ​ 

Winner: Yin Wang, Research Governance Officer, Research Office, Central Coast Local Health District 

“This award has been a wonderful recognition of the meaningful work I do but I was humbled and surprised to win as there are so many research administrators doing fantastic work every day. I’ve been in my current role for four years. I oversee aspects of the entire research project cycle. This involves assessing if the project team has enough project management skills to run the project, such as team size, staff experience, department budget and resource allocation. I ensure that research projects comply with all the relevant regulations, policies, guidelines, ethical standards and local governance requirements. I also check that research data is accurate and stored securely and study participants’ safety, wellbeing and rights are well protected.  

“There have been many highlights including my involvement in establishing our internal Clinical Trial Network Group meeting. This brings together the representatives from each trial unit to discuss and enhance clinical trial operations in the district. I love collaborating with people who are passionate about high quality research projects to improve health outcome for patients and healthcare for communities.” 

Team Award: Innovation and leadership in streamlining and supporting the review and management of quality applications: 

Winners: Dr Sarah Moberly and Team Supporting Quality Ethics and Timely Responses (STILETTO) – Hunter New England Local Health District (voted by Directors of Research across NSW Health) 
Dr Sarah Moberley, Research Ethics Manager, Hunter New England Health District 

Lisa Woseen, Research Ethics Coordinator, Hunter New England Health District 

Debbie Madden, Ethics Administration Officer, Hunter New England Health District 

“Between us, we have nearly 30 years’ experience in these roles! It is lovely to receive recognition for the work we do. We are proud of the hard work of our team achieving key performance measures with limited resources. We love to support researchers develop strong, ethical research projects that will improve the health outcomes for all community members in our local health district and beyond. Sometimes clinicians or researchers may feel that obtaining ethical clearance is a daunting task. We have tried to change that perception. We guide staff through the requirements to meet ethical standards and encourage project to be ethical by design so that ‘ethics’ is not considered an additional requirement.