Project Assistant

Salary: £29,588 with progression to £31,236 per annum.

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 17 September 2026.

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented and motivated individual with excellent organizational and communication skills to join an international, multidisciplinary team working in the area of neuromuscular diseases. Based at the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre (JWMDRC) at Newcastle University, you will play a key role providing administrative support for a number of rare neuromuscular disease patient registries. This is a varied and exciting role with extensive opportunities for external collaboration.

• Responsible for monitoring the registry mailboxes, providing prompt responses to patient queries and supporting patient registrations.
• Undertake data curation activities to ensure high quality patient data is available (including data cleaning, quality checks and data analysis).
• Provide general administrative support to the Project Managers. Activities include social media posts, producing newsletters, website updates, meeting attendance, and minute taking.
• Communicate with relevant key stakeholders which include patient organisations, clinicians and industry and promote registry engagement where appropriate.
• Actively contribute to meetings of the registries team and work collaboratively within the JWMDRC wider team.
• Take responsibility for identifying own learning needs including identifying appropriate courses to ensure up to date knowledge in the regulations governing clinical research and research data.
• Take responsibility for continuous improvement of research administrative processes (SOP’s) and ensure good record maintenance.
• Be aware of and take responsibility for working in accordance with applicable regulations and guidance (Guidelines on Good Clinical Practice and Data Protection Act).
• Other duties may include national and international travel as required by the role.

The Person

• Experienced in all aspects of Microsoft Windows applications with previous experience of working with databases and ensuring data quality.
• Excellent organisational skills along with an ability to maintain attention to detail and prioritise workload to meet demanding targets and deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbal) with internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrable competence in project support and task management.
• Ability to evaluate effectiveness of processes and suggest/implement improvements.
• Knowledge of data protection regulation and Caldicott principles.
• Proven ability to work independently on agreed tasks.
• Knowledge of medical terminology and understanding of Good Clinical Practice (GCP).
• Previous experience with patient/stakeholder engagement.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Highly organised with attention to detail working to high levels of accuracy.
• Good communicator both internally and externally and acts professionally at all times.
• Operates as a team player, able to develop and maintain productive working relationships with multi-disciplinary colleagues and project members.
• Able to work with a high level of sensitivity and professionalism, especially in communicating with rare disease patients and their families.
• Ability to undertake occasional national and international travel.

Qualifications

• Educated to A level standard or equivalent.
• European Computer Driving licence qualification or equivalent.
• Degree qualification in a relevant or transferable discipline or equivalent experience.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population. At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.