Job description

Job summary

The Department of Economics and Public Policy and the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation (CHEPI) at Imperial College Business School have received funding from the European Commission to participate in a project on innovative methods to support future policy decisions around pharmaceutical innovation.

Hi-Prix is a three-year project involving 18 partners across eight European countries. Through theoretical modelling, empirical analyses, qualitative research work and case-studies, this three-year project structured around 10 WPs, will generate new evidence on the role of public sector in R&D and indirect medical and environmental costs in pricing and reimbursement determinations, on the pricing dynamics over pharmaceutical products’ lifecycle, on the impact of policies and incentives on the competitiveness, innovativeness and equity in the healthcare system.

We wish to appoint a post doc (research associate) to work on one of the work packages that will identify and map push, pull and hybrid monetary and non-monetary mechanisms to incentivize R&D and, through quantitative econometric techniques, evaluate their comparative effectiveness on fostering innovation in the selected areas from basic discovery all the way to market launch, promoting global access to these innovations, and mitigating global access inequalities. Key areas of interest will be prevention (i.e., vaccines development), pandemic infectious diseases and antibiotics/antimicrobials, rare diseases.

The ideal candidate will have a research background in either health economics, econometrics, pharmaceutical innovation and the industrial organisation of healthcare markets (or affine areas of research); strong quantitative analytical skills; willing to work as part of an international multidisciplinary research team; and will be expected to travel to the various countries involved in the project.

This full time fixed term post will commence in February 2023, with the successful candidate based at Imperial College Business School, South Kensington, with day to day supervision being provided Professor Marisa Miraldo (Department of Economics and Public Policy, Imperial College Business School).

Duties and responsibilities

• You will work as part of an international multidisciplinary research team


• You will lead on developing an understanding of the economic and management literature on innovation and develop an understanding the key incentive mechanisms for (pharmaceutical) R&D and market launch


• Identify, map and characterize the incentive mechanisms to foster: i) global pharmaceutical R&D; ii) timely access to pharmaceutical innovation globally;


• Evaluate the impact of the different incentive mechanisms in fostering innovation and promoting global access to these


• Identify the key incentive mechanisms that drive innovation productivity in key areas of need, the direction and magnitude of their effects


• Design principles of optimal incentive mechanisms to: i) foster R&D; ii) ensure timely access at global level


• Potentiate research translation by establish an international collaborative network of academics, policy makers, international organizations, industry, patient groups and practitioners whose mission is to advocate for the implementation of effective incentive mechanisms and collaborate on further developments of policies and incentives that foster access to innovation


• You will be responsible for the data collection, data assembly, management and analysis of large-scale data sets


• You will be responsible for conducting primary statistical and econometric analyses


• You will be responsible for drafting academic papers along with interim and final reports on the progress of the work


• You will present results to a variety of audiences including research funders, academics, and policy makers, at seminars, national and international conferences


• You will have joint authorship of academic papers from your research, which will be published in leading international journals

Essential requirements

• PhD in a relevant discipline e.g. in economics (e.g. health economics, industrial organization), management, econometrics/data science or areas affine to the research project. Candidates with a PhD near to completion will also be considered.


• Understanding of the regulatory and incentive frameworks around innovation


• Experience with primary data collection, constructing and maintaining large data sets


• Experience of statistical / econometric analysis


• Experience in dissemination of academic research to a variety of audiences


• Expertise in statistical or econometric analyses


• Ability to locate data and to maintain and document data for use by others


• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary international team


• Demonstrable evidence of ability to take initiative, critically appraise research and support others


• Excellent time and project management skills


• Flexible attitude towards work

Please see the Job Description for a full list of requirements.

Further information

Please note we will review applications on a regular basis and invite suitable candidates to interview. Therefore, the closing date is a guide only and we will close this vacancy once sufficient applications have been received. It is therefore advisable that you submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

This full-time post will commence in February 2023 for a fixed term of 3 years.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Prof. Marisa Miraldo (m.miraldo@imperial.ac.uk).

Documents

• Job Description - Research Associate in Economics of Pharmaceutical Innovations.docx