FORWARRD Phase One

The UK College of Medicine's FORWARRD initiative successfully restructured the roles of 150 clinical research professionals within the College of Medicine, Markey Cancer Center, and Center for Clinical and Translational Science in phase one. Collaborative workstreams contributed to this restructuring, with feedback from the research community leading to clarifications on roles and responsibilities. The initiative's impact has been significant, improving job satisfaction, retention, and overall morale among clinical research staff, positioning them for career advancement rather than viewing their roles merely as jobs.

Restructuring Titles for Clinical Research Professionals

The initial work involved a major restructuring process to define the clinical research professional (CRP) role within the college, identify current employees in CRP-type positions, and align clinical research job descriptions with the Joint Task Force for Clinical Trail Competency's framework. The example below shows 10 unique research coordinator roles that were identified for the new clinical research coordinator I, II, III titles.

150 Clinical Research Professionals Mapped in Phase One

The FORWARRD initiative developed four new title series for Clinical Research Nurses (CRN), Clinical Research Coordinators (CRC), Research Regulatory Specialists (RRS), and Research Administrators and Managers (RAM). The distribution of titles for the first 150 CRPs mapped is shown below, along with the new titles under each series.

Phase One Workstreams