The Purpose of the Role
HIHI wishes to recruit an Innovation Specialist to manage a portfolio of up to 20 health technology clients to lead the management and governance of pilot, validation and user assessment studies in Irish clinical settings. Central to the role, is working directly with Irish start-ups and SMEs to develop health technology products through testing and development projects. The Innovation Specialist will ensure the successful delivery of multiple, concurrent activities within their client portfolio, monitoring and tracking schedule, cost, quality and outcomes. This is an exceptional opportunity to be part of a leading national health innovation program. You will manage multi-disciplinary project teams of experienced clinical, commercialisation, academic and technical professionals dedicated to developing, scaling and growing Irish healthcare companies while improving the health system by meeting global and national healthcare needs.
The candidate will deliver a diverse range of innovative health tech projects for their clients – both industry and clinical teams and should be experienced in driving project plans forward, managing tight deadlines and remote teams for appositive result. The program requires the post holder to be a strong communicator and independent worker with a clear focus on healthcare innovation and developments in health technology.
The HIHI Innovation Specialist will be based in the HIHI TCD hub in St James’s Hospital and will lead several projects across multiple site locations. The post holder will report to HIHI TCD Manager. The successful candidate will be an active member of the National HIHI Operations Team led by principal HIHI academic partner UCC. Informal enquiries about this post – HIHI Manager TCD, Eimear Galvin, galvinei@tcd.ie.
Context
The ambition in the 2013 ‘Action Plan for Jobs’ was to establish a world renowned Health Innovation Hub and in doing so Ireland as a leading location for start-ups and growing medtech and healthcare companies. A Cork demonstrator hub provided a scalable and clinically credible environment in which to launch Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) in 2016. A joint government initiative of the Department of Health and the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) is an Enterprise Ireland and HSE partnership. Providing a vital bridge between the health service and Irish innovators – understanding the evolving needs of the health system and the journey to market for enterprise. HIHI entered its second phase of five year funding from Enterprise Ireland in July 2021.
HIHI drives collaboration between the health service and enterprise, leading to the development of new healthcare technologies, products, and services. HIHI enables frontline piloting and testing, resulting in improved design or the validation to take a product to the next stage of development and commercialisation. HIHI also supports the building of an innovation culture within the health service through a suite of knowledge building resources and guidance for healthcare professionals and innovators on the key steps from ideation to adoption.
Operationally, a consortium of four academic institution (led by UCC with partners TCD, NUIG and MTU) runs Health Innovation Hub Ireland. Each PI is the official budget holder. The HIHI Managers report directly to the relevant PI and the local team (a mix of EI funded posts and HSE seconded posts) report to the HIHI manager. The HIHI Manager also reports into the HIHI National Director who leads the national team. The HIHI Innovation Specialists will work closely with HIHI TCD Manager and HSE/HIHI Clinical Liaisons, HIHI Galway, HIHI Cork, individual site clinical teams, Enterprise Ireland Development Advisors, industry partners and start-ups.
Main responsibilities
- Manages own portfolio of HIHI health technology client companies (up to 20), liaising with Enterprise Ireland HPSU and Development Advisors to ensure commercial value to clients through pilot and validation studies.
- Act as the lead broker between your companies and the health service (acute, community, primary care and individual clinical leads/teams) to identify appropriate study sites, leading engagement with the clinical teams, assessing feasibility of studies, drafting and securing formal project plans and agreements.
- Define and implement each individual project plan per client – this includes but is not limited to project scope definition, work break-down, resource planning, schedule development, budgeting and reporting requirements.
- Responsible for identifying and delivering bespoke study KPIs – outcomes delivered for clinical and company partners – e.g key success indicators: improved patient care and access, savings, site efficiencies.
- Liaise directly with ethics committees as necessary per client – preparation and submission of applications, study protocol and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) compliance.
- Ensure intellectual property assets are managed appropriately – ensuring industry partner confidentiality as needed.
- Manage project risk and change, and ensure project outcomes are delivered in accordance with the project plan and in line with the overall project objectives
- Deliver strong and detailed reports on the progress of each project and the key performance indicators and deliverables to be achieved .
- Manage and prepare HIHI study data (from your client portfolio) for publication.
- Build and manage key relationships across Irish acute sites with a particular focus on creating a network of contacts in the Dublin area to raise the profile of HIHI.
- Collaborate with local and national industry groups and representative bodies – Enterprise Ireland, IDA, Knowledge Transfer Ireland, Health Tech Ireland, IPPOSI, Digital Hub, GEC, etc, to support client work on development, funding options, commercialisation and market entry.
- Build and manage close relationships with TCD Tech Transfer Office and across TCD Research and Innovation to support and advise client portfolio on issues relating to IP, spin out, product development and commercial pathways.
- Liaise with HIHI colleagues in Cork and Galway and, where appropriate, manage HIHI projects in other HIHI locations.
- Pro-active content creation, input and management of HIHI Knowledge Network (online toolkit for Irish health innovators).
- Intelligence gathering and dissemination of trends and opportunities for EU funding.
- Provides expert guidance on EU proposal development, eligibility and compliance.
- Leads on writing high quality EU proposals for strategic, high value opportunities
- Maintenance and regular monitoring of HIHI project notes and reports on internal HIHI Smartsheets and SharePoint systems (full training provided).
- Represent HIHI at events, conferences and symposia.
- Carry out other duties as appropriate to the post as may be assigned from time to time by the HIHI TCD Manager.
*The above role profile is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post.
Person Requirements
The role-holder will require the following knowledge, skills and attributes for successful performance in the role.
Qualifications
- The candidate appointed to this post should have a degree in science, technology, engineering, medtech, health or business.
- The successful candidate must have a minimum of three years’ project management experience in the health sector, or with industry- focused health technology projects.
- Professional accreditation(s) in project management methodologies is an advantage.
Knowledge
- Applicants must have significant (min three years) experience in an area of healthcare – within industry: pharma, med tech, med device, digital health start-ups, or clinical experience (no preferred discipline) in an acute site.
- Demonstrable knowledge of the digital healthcare system, clinical and health technology landscape in Ireland.
- Expertise in global research development and innovation technology trends, opportunities and challenges as they affect healthcare businesses.
- A keen interest, understanding and insight into health technology, medical devices and good clinical practice to deliver effective clinical studies.
- Clinical research knowledge /interest in clinical research.
- Comprehensive understanding and knowledge of EU Funding trends and opportunities and EU proposal requirements, standards and criteria.
Experience
- A record of achieving results independently in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
- Experience with designing and mobilising the project management process and implementing the entire project lifecycle to meet challenging deadlines.
- Demonstrable experience of achievements in building networks, stakeholder engagement and relationships across sectors.
- Demonstrable experience and evidence of client services roles with accountability responsibilities.
- Extensive experience of portfolio management and ownership – managing multiple projects with competing demands.
- Experience in managing multi-disciplinary project teams.
- Experience of grant writing and supporting grant applications – up to date on EU funding trends, priorities and modalities as well as funding eligibility criteria and guidelines.
- Experience in technology commercialisation, design, testing product development, IP, work with TTO
- Experience and expertise in social media and digital content creation a bonus.
Skills
- Ability to communicate, engage and convince at senior level with thought leaders across health and technology sectors.
- Creative, patient, adaptable, and flexible with a knack for understanding client needs and developing innovative solutions.
- Excellent written and oral proficiency in English (essential), excellent communication and interpersonal skills both written and verbal.
- Ability to problem solve, to brainstorm and to generate innovative ideas and solutions.
- Proven ability to prioritise workload and work to exacting deadlines.
- Ability to negotiate access to resources in a matrix-type organisation.
- Should possess excellent computer skills with experience of project management and collaboration tools.
- Self-motivated, showing strong initiative and accountability for own portfolio of clients.
Personal attributes
- Strong communicator
- A leader who pays close attention to project requirements and proactively delivers.
- Ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing requirements.
- Client focus – the ability to provide an excellent client service focusing on client needs across project and commercialisation strategies.
Apply through: https://my.corehr.com/pls/trrecruit/erq_search_package.search_form?p_company=1&p_internal_external=E
