Case study - Scientific Project Lead

Before joining Aspire, I had about 7 years’ experience in medical communications, during which time I progressed from Associate Medical Writer to Scientific Team Lead. Although my day-to-day work throughout those 7 years focussed largely on content delivery, the evolving roles came with increasing exposure to project management-related tasks, such as managing status calls, budgets, resourcing, etc. Ultimately, as a Scientific Team Lead, I spent an increasing amount of my time on project management.

During my time at Aspire, my responsibilities as a Scientific Project Lead (SPL) have varied between the accounts that I have worked on, but we support the management of all aspects of scientific projects, including timelines, finances, databases, and team resourcing. We liaise with clients and authors, often regarding both scientific content and project management details. The SPL job draws on many attributes I needed in my previous role; SPLs are process-orientated, good at prioritising work across multiple projects, and understand the interplay between projects, i.e. how the details of one project may impact several others.

What I enjoy about the role is the variety and that I can keep in touch with the science, while also developing my skill set in other areas.