The Options Collaboratory (www.optionslab.ca) is currently looking for a Research Administrative Assistant. Our lab is an interdisciplinary research team dedicated to bringing together community, academic, clinical, and policy partners to find and implement new and better options for the treatment and prevention of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), mpox, and other emerging pathogens. The lab is led by Dr. Darrell Tan and includes a diverse team. We are housed within the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions (www.maphealth.ca) and conduct clinical research within the Division of Infectious Diseases at St. Michaels Hospital.
The Research Administrative Assistant will provide overall administrative and organizational support the lab. Their primary role is to perform general office duties such as organizing meetings and events (including taking minutes), maintaining calendars and scheduling, making travel arrangements for the team, filing, and document control/updating. They will also assist with grants (completing applications, preparing letters of support and other documents, liaising with team members), the preparation of reports (to funders, the hospital, and other stakeholders), assisting with research (literature searches, use of citation software such as Endnote for managing scientific references, formatting presentations), and tracking expenses for project budgets.
As the first point of contact for the team, the Research Administrative Assistant should have excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Excellent organizational, writing, computer skills are required. A solid understanding of health research and enthusiasm towards the fields of sexual health, infectious diseases and health equity are an asset.
Because our lab works with historically disadvantaged populations including gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, ethnocultural minorities, and other equity-seeking groups, the ideal candidate must have demonstrated comfort working with these populations.
This position is onsite with the option for occasional remote work.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that people in underrepresented communities are less likely to apply to jobs when they don’t meet every single qualification. We are dedicated to building an inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, we still welcome you to apply.
Duties/Responsibilities
General Administrative Support, Meeting Organization and Event Planning (25% of work time)
- Acts as a point of contact for research program, responding to routine mail, telephone, and fax enquiries and documents for the PI/program/project.
- General office duties (i.e. filing, faxing, mailings, courier services, photocopying, scanning, maintaining inventory, etc.).
- Manages staff onboarding and departures, including submitting paperwork to HR, and ensuring staff are well oriented and setup in all relevant systems.
- Assists with participant referrals.
- Manages students and their needs, including supporting graduate and post-graduate trainee’s activities, and coordinates HR tasks such as following up on job postings.
- Tracks and manages staff listing and regular updates of staff listing.
- Provides administrative support to Principal Investigator and Research Program team members.
- Submits paperwork for all research visitors and volunteers.
- Updates, and maintains Principal Investigators’ CVs and CV modules (e.g. Common CV).
- Maintains and updates the research team website using existing webpage design software (WordPress).
- Arranges, organizes, and maintains complex schedules and calendar appointments, using MS Outlook and other tools as relevant.
- Schedules, and confirms meetings/appointments; updates calendar with meeting/appointments information, in a timely manner.
- Exercises some judgement to reschedule appointment, as required based on the Principal Investigator(s) changing priorities, notifying parties of changes, in a timely manner.
- Utilizes knowledge of the Principal Investigator/Team's activity to manipulate/update the schedules/calendars, ensuring they are kept aware of changes, in a timely manner.
- Makes arrangement for professional, and other work related activities, as required, ensuring all information is entered into the calendar, including contact list and meeting schedule, etc., to ensure Principal Investigator (s) have timely/current meeting times and dates.
- Plans, and coordinates day-to-day work independently while contributing to the combined needs of the Principal Investigator and team.
- Tracks Principal Investigator’s activities, such as presentations, speaking events, publications, and other activities on a regular basis.
- Coordinates on-site and virtual logistics of meetings. Troubleshoots on-site problems as they arise. Including room bookings, all required AV/computer equipment, virtual platforms, and catering.
- Liaises with internal and/or external parties to send out invitation for individual and/or committee meetings, advising of meeting time and date, to determine availability/confirm attendance, in a timely manner.
- Books appropriate meeting/conference rooms to accommodate all participants, and notifies parties concerned of meeting time and location, in a timely manner.
- Prepares and distributes meeting agenda items to participants, on a timely basis.
- Prints, photocopies, orders, and distributes required materials (e.g., agenda) prior to participant(s) arrival.
- Makes arrangements for catering, audio visual and other equipment/material (e.g., flip chart, etc.), ensuring equipment is set up in a timely manner for meetings and follows up with parties to ensure meeting runs smoothly.
- Attends meetings, as required, recording/taking, preparing, and distributing minutes, as requested.
- Follows up on the implementation of meeting decisions, as requested.
- Coordinates research meetings, including scheduling, minute-taking, circulating documentation and following-up with team members on key tasks.
- Assists in preparing meeting agendas, and any required background material.
- Takes and transcribes minutes, distributes to team, and follows up with required parties, as required to ensure minutes are an accurate reflection of meeting(s).
- Coordinates and participates in educational programming for staff and students.
- Organizes day to day initiatives and special events such as booking venues, equipment, catering and printing materials.
- Updates clinicatrial.gov databases.
- Responsible for maintaining lab equipment calibration and maintenance schedule and documents.
Word Processing Responsibilities (10% of work time)
- Uses Microsoft application or other relevant programs to type and develop correspondence and other relevant documentation, including letters, memos, reports, invoices, abstracts, etc., often of a confidential nature to support the activities of the Principal Investigator and research team.
- Transcribes data from recordings and/or handwritten copy.
- Types/prepares drafts documents for review, including legal agreements, presentations, abstracts, key performance indicators, and other documents, in a timely manner.
- Types/prepares funding application for approval.
- Collects, complies, updates, and provides basic statistical and/or financial information, and other data to generate and prepare reports and other documentation, ensuring reporting deadlines are met and all required reports are completed.
- Assists in the preparation and formatting of documents, grant applications and associated/relevant administrative forms, ethics submissions, abstracts, teaching materials, correspondence, and memos.
- Preparation/Formatting of Materials (10% of work time)
- Prepares documents for presentations.
- Develops and distributes visually appealing, and informative study communications to research collaborators.
- Formats and prepares presentations, reports, and papers.
- Assists in the preparation and submission of academic manuscripts and conference abstracts, including article searches and submission of manuscripts to journals.
- Collects and prepares material for research grants including uploading documents for grant applications and assisting with obtaining relevant signatures.
- Coordinates, and prepares any required mail-outs and manage the courier process for the PI/program/project.
- Prepares forms (i.e., reimbursement forms, REB applications and forms, contract submission forms), and coordinates the preparation, and submission of funding proposals.
- Develops and produces regular, and ad hoc reports and documentation, as requested.
- Financial Responsibilities (20% of work time)
- Prepares monthly financial report, within scope of authority.
- Prepares requisitions to order supplies, within signing authority limit.
- Prepares expense and verifies billing report for Principal Investigator approval.
- Completes appropriate requisition for repayment requests.
- Processes orders and requisitions for the department, including sourcing suppliers, arranging/ensuring delivery, reconciling invoice and processing payment.
- Purchases honorariums for research participants, and research supplies and assist in the disbursement of research funds to project partners and participants.
- Prepares, and manages petty cash, and other expenses.
- Tracks and manages staff payroll and benefits in payroll system.
- Track and manage purchase of computer, and other technical hardware, as well as office furniture.
- Tracks expenses for project budgets, generates payroll and expense reports.
- Manages travel, and travel expenses as well as prepares and manages reimbursements requisitions for Principal Investigator, and team.
Office Management (5% of work time)
- Prepares outgoing material for distribution, mailing and/or courier.
- Sends and/or receives facsimiles, as requested.
- Orders and receives office supplies, as required, ensures supplies are accessible to staff.
- Manage engineering and other facility issues/requests, as well as managing security issues (e.g., security cards, keys, access) for Principal Investigator, and team.
- Coordinate the purchase of supplies, as well as manage those supplies for the Principal Investigator, and team.
Document Control and Electronic and/or Paper Filing (5% of work time)
- Creates and maintains up-to-date filing system, including managing the printing, scanning, and filing of legal documents, including meticulous preparation and maintenance of up-to-date study documentation (i.e. creating and updating tracking sheets), both hard copies and electronic.
- Assists with and tracks Research Ethics Board submissions.
- Maintains inventory of biological specimens from clinical research studies.
- Maintains up-to-date investigator site files for clinical trials, in collaboration with Principal Investigator and team.
- Organizes and maintains project management/organizational databases for research program (i.e. study materials, software licenses).
- Maintain annual (or more frequently as required) activity reports for funding bodies, managers and other senior leadership (as required and deemed necessary).
First Point of Contact/Communication (5% of work time)
- Communicate with internal and external stakeholders as necessary.
- Opens, sorts, prioritizes, and distributes email from general lab inbox.
- Strict compliance with patient/employee confidentiality practices and policies.
- Strict compliance with patient/employee safety practices and standards.
- Appropriate identification, reporting and response to patient/employee confidentiality breaches in accordance with established policies and procedures.
- Appropriate identification, reporting and response to patient/employee safety risks and incidents/events in accordance with established policies and procedures.
Research Duties (20% of work time)
The Research Administrative Assistant will assist with the research activities needed for each project.
- Collects, transcribes, organizes, quality controls, and enters study related data.
- Interacts with various departments such as pharmacy, laboratories, medical records, etc., and with internal and external stakeholders in order to provide administrative support.
- Performs literature searches/data mining on requested topics through databases and provide relevant articles to PI or research team.
- Collects feedback from multiple partners on projects re: proposals, manuscripts, and dissemination tools (sometimes >50 authors) including record keeping of feedback and changes to authorship order.
- Screens participants and obtains required documentation including obtaining consent.
- Collects data via phone calls, interviews.
- Recruits study participants, in collaboration with study team or staff at participating community organizations.
- Schedules interviews and participants.
- Follows strict protocols for participant interactions.
- Administers quantitative surveys to study
- Facilitates compensation of study participants under direction of study team/PI.
Qualifications, Knowledge And Skills
- Undergraduate Degree
- Graduate of a recognized Office Administration/Secretarial Arts program or equivalent with 3 years of progressively responsible office administrative experience, preferably in a research health care setting OR demonstrable equivalent combination of specialized education and experience.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook)
- Excellent computer skills including file sharing/storage software (i.e. SharePoint), video conferencing (e.g. Skype, Zoom), reference manager software (e.g. EndNote), and mailing software (e.g. MailChimp), Survey software (RedCap,), as well as the ability to use computerized databases and other computerized tools.
- Ability to quickly learn new software programs.
- Experience in preparing and submitting research grant proposals.
- Demonstrated knowledge of medical and scientific terminology.
- Demonstrated commitment to principles of harm reduction and anti-oppression.
- Familiarity and comfort working with marginalized populations.
- Familiarity with online databases of peer reviewed literature (i.e., Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo).
- Ability to multitask, work accurately and effectively under pressure, meet deadlines, and remain composed in high-pressure situations.
- Ability to produce accurate work with appropriate turnaround time.
- Excellent organizational skills to manage multiple projects in a timely manner and flexibility to adapt to changing workload.
- Ability to work independently, take initiative, and manage multiple projects and timelines
- Ability to work under pressure and with competing priorities
- Able to keep strict confidence as required when interacting with stakeholders.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, with a proficiency in proofreading and grammar.
- Communicate clearly and fluently in English.
- Ability to communicate effectively and listen attentively.
- Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
- Detail-oriented
- Excellent decision making and problem-solving skills.
- Fulfill Unity Health Toronto attendance and punctuality requirements and be flexible to occasionally arrive early and leave late.
- Observe relevant Unity Health Toronto rules and regulations, practices, policies, procedures, safety practices, and current legislation (where relevant).
- Strong knowledge of departmental practices, procedures and standards required.
- Advanced computer skills
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If you are an internal employee, please apply through the Intranet for your application to be considered.
Thank you for applying.
