Biorepository Tissue & Collection Officer

Job overview

Fixed term contract/ secondment opportunity until 28th February 2027

Do you have a passion for research?  An exciting opportunity has arisen for a friendly, hard-working and enthusiastic person to join our small but busy team to help facilitate high quality, world leading research. The Norwich Research Park (NRP) Biorepository (tissue bank) helps to support translational research at institutes across the NRP, including Quadram Institute Biosciences, University of East Anglia and Earlham Institute, and national and international partners. Your role will be to assist the team with effective and efficient running of the NRP Biorepository.

As the successful candidate, you will be expected to have excellent communication and organisational skills. You will have the ability to manage and prioritise your workload accordingly, as well as work as part of a wider team. A high level of attention to detail and accuracy, and an understanding of patient confidentiality is essential. You will be able to foster effective communication with our patients, clinicians, researchers and senior leaders, including internal and external stakeholders.

To support the delivery of a high quality, safe and compassionate healthcare service, including research, all staff are expected to act as a role model to others in all aspects of their work and consistently demonstrate NNUH’s ‘PRIDE’ values of People focused, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a candidate that is self-motivated with the ability to work independently, using their own initiative, working confidently to help deliver research projects within multidisciplinary teams across the hospital and NRP.

Your role will include consenting patients and attending clinics for sample collections, as well as helping with the organisation and prioritisation of workload to help the team deliver high quality support for research projects. You will support project set up, liaising with clinical team members, helping develop project specific paperwork, advising on sample and data collections and help answer email and telephone queries from patients, researchers and clinicians.

The postholder will support the day-to-day executive and administrative functions of the NRP Biorepository, ensuring the smooth running of our operations. Administrative responsibilities will include inputting patient data into an electronic database, complying with the regulatory framework of the Human Tissue Act (HTA), compiling reports, developing Standard Operating Procedures and attending team meetings.

You must be able to demonstrate awareness of and compliance with relevant Health and safety regulations, the HTA, and GDPR. As part of the role, you will be expected to help support governance processes, facilitating audits and assist with inspections by governing bodies and visiting sponsors.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The post holder will liaise with clinicians, surgeons, research nurses pathologists and laboratory staff to identify and coordinate sample collection.
• The post holder will ensure that the principles of the Human Tissue Act (HTA) and GCP are upheld at all times and that all samples collected have appropriate patient consent.
• Meet face-to-face with potential participants to gain consent as required
• The post holder will ensure that the integrity of a sample in their care is maintained and the sample transported to the biorepository facility in a timely fashion.
• To collate detailed medical history and clinical details as required by individualstudies and clinical trials
• To maintain highly accurate logs of samples, and paper trails of the movement of pathological samples in and out of the biorepository

Please refer to the Job Description for the full specification of responsibilities and requirements for this post.

Because this post is for a time-limited period, applicants who are currently employed by an NHS organisation will only be appointed on a secondment basis, please ensure you have spoken to your line manager and have their support prior to your application. Applicants who are not employed by an NHS organisation will receive a fixed term contract. Please speak to the Recruitment Team if you have any questions