Building Your Research Team

Craig R. Cohen, MD, MPHUniversity of California San Francisco

Outline

• Define your research needs• Who belongs on your team• Roles and responsibilities• Team communication

Define Your Research Needs• Be purposeful• Align expertise with study

aims– Type of research

• Clinical trial, epidemiology, etc.

– Research discipline• Implementation science,

immunology, etc.

• General research support– Senior mentorship– Biostatistics, etc.

Research Needs Example

• To assess the effect of vaginally administered MucoCept on vaginal and rectal colonization and natural clearance.– Needs: Clinical trialist, microbiology, biostatistics

• To investigate the association between the endogenous vaginal microbiota and colonization of L. jensenii 1153-1666.– Needs: microbiology, molecular biology, bioinformatics

• To evaluate the pharmacokinetic/dynamic properties, and tissue effects of vaginally and rectally administered MucoCept.– Needs: pharmacology, regulatory science, immunology

(female genital tract and rectal), clinical trialist

Who Belongs on Your Team?

• Mentors Supervisors

• Senior Junior investigators

• Local Non-local investigators

• Collaborators Competitors

• Willing Not as willing

• Cis-disciplinary Trans-disciplinary

Roles and Responsibilities

• Types of collaborators– Principal Investigator• Multiple PI (NIH)• Site-PI (multisite

studies)

– Co-investigator– Consultant– Specific roles• Biostatistician• Mentor• Project Director

Role and Responsibilities• Discuss & negotiate scope-

of-work up front– Percent effort for each year• Corroborate with budget

– Negotiate subcontract if needed (may include non-personnel costs)

– Discuss publications– Ability to have trainees

work on project

Team Communication• Develop strategic

communications plan• Face-to-face team meetings• Teleconferences– frequency

• Email– Limit use for sharing

documents• Sharing files– e.g. Dropbox, Sharepoint,

website, etc.