Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT FACULTY OF MEDICAL & HUMAN SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF CANCER SCIENCES CENTRE FOR RADIOTHERAPY RELATED RESEARCH SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW IN PLANNING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Vacancy ref: M&HS-07428 Salary: £49,230 - £58,754 per annum Hours: 1.0 FTE Duration: Fixed term, 3 years Location: Oxford Road, Manchester Responsible to: Tim Illidge ____________________________________________________________________________ Enquiries about the application process: Louise Crow Email: [email protected] Tel: 0161 306 0832 Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews: Professor Marcel van Herk Email: [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY This is an outstanding opportunity for a new appointment for a Senior Research Fellow in Planning System Development within the Institute of Cancer Sciences at The University of Manchester to work on advanced planning systems development, in particular on the development of probabilistic planning for photon and proton therapy. Your appointment as Senior Research Fellow forms part of a global recruitment drive to bring some of the world’s leading cancer experts and their teams to Manchester. Jointly funded by the University and The Christie, this represents an exciting opportunity for Manchester to recruit some of the best international research talent in screening and prevention, personalised cancer therapy, radiotherapy related research, lung cancer, melanoma, women's cancers and haematological oncology. 1 The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK with an ambition to be in the top 25 universities worldwide; The Christie is the biggest specialised cancer treatment centre in Europe treating over 40,000 patients a year and the first designated comprehensive cancer centre in the UK. These combined strengths have been harnessed through development of a common strategic vision and an investment plan that capitalises on the enormous potential to translate research into the clinic. You will play a key role in the development of novel planning system algorithms taking into account geometrical and biological uncertainties in the planning process. Eventually, these systems need to be validated through clinical trials. You will be part of the new Radiotherapy Physics Research Group in the Institute of Cancer Sciences that works to improve the precision of radiotherapy in clinical practice. You will also work closely with members of the Radiotherapy Related Research group in the Institute of Cancer Sciences and have an honorary appointment in the Christie Medical Physics & Engineering group. You will have expertise in radiotherapy physics, in particular with treatment planning, geometrical uncertainties and/or outcome modelling and have a proven track record demonstrated through publications and grant income. Contents Page A) Proposed Appointment 3 B) Details of Appointment 3 C) Person Specification 4 D) Facilities Related to the Appointment 6 E) The University of Manchester 6 F) The Christie NHS Foundation Trust 10 2 A) Proposed Appointment This newly created Senior Research Fellow post will be based within The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and will be integrated with the Radiotherapy Related Research (RRR) group and Christie Medical Physics and Engineering (CMPE). You will play a key role in the development of advanced radiotherapy planning systems, in particular probabilistic planning, i.e., understanding and quantifying uncertainties in the entire radiotherapy chain and taking them into account in the plan optimization process. The new techniques will play an essential role in planning for conventional photon therapy, MR-guided therapy, and proton radiotherapy. You will be expected to develop a programme of international leading radiotherapy research for a group including post-doctoral scientists and research students and develop local and international collaborations with scientific, clinical and commercial partners. B) Details of Appointment Research • Conduct research of international quality and publish it in peer reviewed high impact journals of national/international standing. • Lead and/or contribute to successful bids for substantial external funding. • Assist with the development of a programme of radiotherapy physics research in the Radiotherapy Related Research (RRR) Centre of the Institute of Cancer Sciences. • Develop productive research collaborations with other groups at The Christie Hospital and the University. • Develop productive national and international research collaborations and partnerships. • Attract, supervise and support postgraduate research students at Masters and Doctoral level. • Work closely with academic radiation oncologists and clinical oncologists. • Develop radiotherapy clinical trials to validate the new methodology. Academic Leadership • Provide academic leadership and strategic direction in advanced treatment planning for radiotherapy. • To pursue excellence in teaching and research and to inspire others to do the same. • Lead and participate in internal and external networks to foster collaboration and to promote The University of Manchester nationally and internationally. • Liaise with software developers, the proton research group, biologists, pathologists and commercial partners in the development of new projects. Education • Promote excellence in teaching and learning and directly teach and mentor students. 3 • Provide academic leadership and innovation in teaching and learning. • Contribute to leadership and coordination of quality assurance and enhancement activities and preparations for review by external agencies. • Teach and assess undergraduate and postgraduate students as required. • Contribute to the planning and delivery of lectures, seminars, workshops and short courses. Management • Participate as a full member of the Institute of Cancer Sciences through Institute activities, meetings, events etc. C) • Contribute to the Institute of Cancer Sciences’ strategy documents. • Manage collaborative multidisciplinary research with the professions allied to radiotherapy, the public sector, industry and the community compatible with the University’s external affairs agenda. • Support the Institute of Cancer Sciences Director by undertaking delegated administrative responsibilities and other duties, following consultation. • Advise upon and contribute to the development of academic staff in areas of research, teaching and publications. • Provide academic leadership, development, mentoring and career management for junior colleagues. Person Specification REQUIREMENTS Qualifications ESSENTIAL DESIRABLE Training & Experience Evidence of wide experience and training in radiotherapy and in particular treatment planning PhD (or equivalent) Computing experience Demonstrated interest and experience teaching/education Evidence of ability to play a leadership role in teaching, education and mentorship Project management skills 4 Experience of teaching undergraduate/ postgraduate trainees State registered clinical Scientist Experience in treatment in planning and/or image processing software development Experience and/or interest in geometrical uncertainties in radiotherapy including delineation variation, radiobiology, pathology, and data mining Academic/research achievements Radiotherapy and medical physics research experience Recipient of research award or prize Evidence of ability to provide academic leadership Ability to progress to having an international research profile Ability to apply for, and proven success in, being awarded peer reviewed grant income Recent articles in peer reviewed publications The ability to initiate, design and supervise radiotherapy research Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues in other disciplines Ability to manage research projects Ability to supervise postgraduate research students and assistants Personal Skills Evidence of ongoing national/ international research collaboration Leadership and people management skills, with the ability to motivate all levels of staff Demonstrable skills interpersonal 5 Evidence of excellent written and oral communication skills Flexible approach to work The ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team Good time management skills, with the ability to prioritise and handle competing demands D) Facilities related to the appointment You will be based within Radiotherapy Related Research which comprises the membership of the Radiation Related Research (RRR) group, which was established in 2007 by the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). The group was formed to maximise the opportunities of radiotherapy research in Manchester and to help develop an internationally leading research group. RRR is undertaken by research groups throughout the MCRC to support basic, translational and clinical research organised into research areas with a common remit to the development, behaviour and response to radiation treatment: • • • • • E) Pre-clinical radiobiology Translational radiobiology Clinical oncology and translational research Technical radiotherapy Proton therapy The University of Manchester http://www.manchester.ac.uk/ The University of Manchester is Britain’s largest and most popular university, with a distinguished history of academic achievement and an ambitious agenda for the future. The University, with income in excess of £780M, has four Nobel Prize winners amongst its current academic staff, and has embarked on an exciting and bold course which aims to make us one of the top 25 universities in the world, as set out in the University’s strategic vision for 2020: Strategic Vision 2020. The University of Manchester was created in 2004 through the merger of The Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. It has an excellent track record in research, as demonstrated by the award of two Nobel prizes in physics in 2010. The University’s research strategy can be found here: UoM Research Strategy. The academic structure of The University of Manchester is made up of Faculties and Schools. There are four Faculties and further information about each Faculty and its related Schools can be found here: UoM Faculties and Schools. 6 In the last few years, the University has spent more than £400M transforming the campus and building a world-class environment for outstanding scholars, teachers and internationally acclaimed research teams. This is the largest investment ever seen in UK higher education history. A further £250M investment by 2015 will bring the total spend to more than £650M. The University of Manchester developed the £26M Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre on the Christie site. It has a dedicated cyclotron, plus preclinical and clinical PET scanning capability and Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging. Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences www.mhs.manchester.ac.uk The Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences is a leading international centre for research and education in medicine and a spectrum of health-related professions including nursing, midwifery, social work, pharmacy, dentistry, psychology, audiology and speech and language therapy. A major review in 2011/12 led to a new strategy and structure intended to enhance research and teaching performance. A key component of the new approach is the creation of a matrix structure linking five Faculty Schools with six Faculty Institutes. Details of the structure can be found here: FMHS Structure. The objective is to ensure that the Faculty achieves a major international academic profile in each priority area within a period of five years and the strategy focuses research efforts in six priority areas: • • • • • • Human Development including Women’s and Children’s Health Cardiovascular Sciences Cancer Sciences Inflammation and Repair Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health Population and Health Sciences The Faculty has a total income of £210M, around 6,500 undergraduate students and 2,500 postgraduate students. It has strong relationships with outstanding NHS partners, which are critical in achieving our mission. Institute of Cancer Sciences www.cancer.manchester.ac.uk The Institute of Cancer Sciences is one of six Faculty Institutes within the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. It comprises six research themed Centres: Haematological Oncology; Paediatric, Teenage and Young Adult Cancer; Personalised Therapy; Radiotherapy Related Research and Women’s Cancer. Research interests span from biomarker studies using clinical proteomics and microarray analyses to clinical trials. The present management team includes: Prof Sir Salvador Moncada Prof Tim Illidge Prof Guy Makin Institute Director Centre Lead for Radiotherapy Related Research Centre Lead for Paediatric, Teenage and Young Adult Cancer 7 Prof Paul Townsend Prof John Radford Prof Gordon Jayson Prof Michael Lisanti Centre Lead for Personalised Therapy Centre Lead for Haematological Oncology Centre Lead for Women’s Cancer Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism There are 47 substantive academic members of staff within the Institute, including 28 academic clinicians. The Institute of Cancer Sciences has a first rate publication record in high impact medicine and cancer journals and has a significant research income from industry, research councils and charities. The majority of Institute of Cancer Sciences researchers have laboratory space in one of the University buildings on The Christie site, which provides a focus for cancer research activity - combining an international reputation for cancer research with the largest scale cancer clinical service in the UK. Other activity in the Institute of Cancer Sciences is based either on the University’s Oxford Road site or in key Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) partner sites at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. The large patient base found in Greater Manchester and links to the research network provides major opportunities for the growth of clinical and translational research, a key objective of the Trusts and the University. The Institute of Cancer Sciences plays a key role in taking advantage of this opportunity to seamlessly link basic and clinical science. Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk The Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute is a leading cancer research institute funded by Cancer Research UK (CR-UK), the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world. Research spans the whole spectrum of cancer research, from programmes investigating the molecular and cellular basis of cancer, to those focused on translational research and the development of novel therapeutic approaches and experimental pharmacology. Currently the Institute contains multiple Cancer Research UK-funded basic science and translational science research groups. The programmes span from basic science mechanisms of cell proliferation through to the identification of new biomarkers for novel treatments. The CR-UK Manchester Institute is located in the Paterson building and has excellent laboratory facilities and outstanding core services, including microarrays, confocal microscopy, bioinformatics, histology, and access to mass-spectrometry based proteomics. There is also a biological resource unit with expertise in generating transgenic mice as well as tumour implantation studies. A Cancer Research UK funded Drug Discovery Unit was established at the CR-UK Manchester Institute in 2009. Integrating medicinal, computational and synthetic chemistry with in vitro and cellular biology, the Unit investigates novel drug discovery targets in an attempt to provide new chemical entities for the treatment of unmet clinical needs in cancer patients. It has established facilities to enable state-of-the-art biological and clinical target assessment and validation, small molecule drug design and synthesis and the biological evaluation of the resultant compounds. Manchester Academic Health Science Centre www.mahsc.ac.uk 8 The University, and in particular the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, is a key member of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC). Formed in 2008, MAHSC is a Federation of Equal Partners enabled by a Company Limited by Guarantee. The partners involved in the MAHSC are: The University of Manchester, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, Salford Primary Care Trust (NHS Salford), Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. MAHSC is one of only five Department of Health designated AHSCs in the UK. The designation is a mark of excellence across research, innovation, education and patient service, and recognition of the potential to excel in translational medicine. MAHSC’s vision is to be a leading global centre for the delivery of innovative applied health research and education into healthcare. As with other AHSCs, MAHSC has a dual role: to act as a beacon of international excellence for the UK and to provide leadership and early adoption for our local health system. This will be delivered via a tripartite approach encompassing research and innovation, education and training and clinical service. Manchester Cancer Research Centre www.mcrc.manchester.ac.uk The Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC) is a unique collaboration that brings together the expertise, vision and resources of our partner organisations, each of which have outstanding individual reputations in cancer research. The Centre was formed in 2006 by The University of Manchester, Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and has since been established as the cancer research arm of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC). It has recently been designated as a Cancer Research UK Major Centre, one of only three in the UK under the Directorship of Professor Nic Jones. The MCRC vision is to transform the care of cancer patients, by the application of personalised medicine throughout an individual patient’s diagnostic and treatment journey. Recent advances have meant that this vision is within reach for some, but more research is needed to make it a reality for all cancer patients. The MCRC has enjoyed considerable success in recent months with the creation of a CRUK funded Centre of Excellence in Lung Cancer Research (with UCL, London), a new CRUK/EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre (with University of Cambridge) and the award of a Movember Prostate Cancer Centre of Excellence (with Queen’s University Belfast). To allow us to continue to expand our research and attract leading scientists to Manchester, an iconic new research facility opened on The Christie site in June 2015. This £28.5million building will be home to 250 researchers and has been designed to encourage greater interaction between different research groups and between basic and clinical scientists. Bringing together basic, translational and clinical research on a single site, the MCRC partnership provides the integrated approach essential to turn research findings in the laboratory into better, more effective, treatments for cancer patients. Few other places in the UK have the breadth and depth of expertise, the buy-in from all partners, the investment, the infrastructure, and the access to such a large and diverse patient population, to achieve this. 9 F) The Christie NHS Foundation Trust www.christie.nhs.uk The Christie NHS Foundation Trust was established in 1901 by charitable donations, as a specialist hospital caring for cancer patients and developing new treatments. It became a Foundation Trust in April 2007, has 30,000 members and a turnover of £183M. It has a green governance rating and a financial risk rating of 4 (good) from Monitor and was rated one of the top 5 hospitals in England by the 2011 staff and inpatient survey. The Christie is the sole provider of radiotherapy and chemotherapy to the 3.2 million people in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire cancer network, which is the largest in England. It also provides highly specialist surgical cancer services to patients across the north west and nationally. In addition, it delivers radiotherapy services from two satellite centres that it runs at the Royal Oldham and Salford Royal hospital sites. Consultants from The Christie visit 8 other hospitals in the network, delivering outpatient services and some chemotherapy treatments. The Christie brings together basic and translational research with NHS service on a single site to deliver new cancer treatments. It is one of the largest cancer centres in Europe, treating more than 40,000 cancer patients a year, and has been elected to the board of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), the umbrella organisation for all the major cancer centres in the EU. The Christie is organised in four clinical management divisions: Networked Services Division includes the Departments of Medical Oncology, Clinical Oncology, Palliative Care, Endocrinology and Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology. Cancer Centre Services includes Surgery, Anaesthetics, HDU, Haematology, Radiology, Pathology, Pharmacy and Supportive care. In addition, the divisions of Christie Medical Physics and Engineering and Research and Education deliver important components of the comprehensive cancer centre. The Departments of Medical and Clinical Oncology have international reputations for their clinical work. All consultants are site specialised and common treatment policies are developed through the multi-disciplinary Disease Groups (DGs). Links to the cancer units are maintained through a number of peripheral and outreach clinics across the network. The Patient Treatment Centre opened in November 2010 and is a purpose built facility encompassing a dedicated Clinical Trials Unit, an outpatient chemotherapy treatment facility and a private patient facility. Two satellite radiotherapy centres, at Oldham and Salford, enabling increased capacity for treatment and local delivery of treatment, opened in August 2010 and July 2011 respectively. There are plans for The Christie to develop satellite centres in the Pennine Trust and in Salford so that ambulatory care can be delivered locally. The Christie is committed to cancer research. The Research Division has strong links with The University of Manchester, Cancer Research UK and the Manchester Cancer Research Centre. 10