Dr Oliver Rausch has been appointed programme director of the UK’s National Institute for Health Research translational research partnerships.
As part of the NIHR’s Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI), the partnerships was created to support collaboration between industry, the NHS and academia in early and exploratory research for products with the potential to have a direct effect on improving healthcare.
Efforts currently cover two areas, inflammatory respiratory disease and joint and related inflammatory diseases, both of which shall be overseen by Dr Rausch.
He brings industry experience to the role having spent the past 15 years working at pharma companies across Europe.
Most recently, he was VP biology at Cellzome, and he has further experience as director, new chemical entities biology at UCB and as an investigator with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Prior to joining the industry, Dr Rausch was a postdoctoral scientist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London.
“Oliver’s appointment will strengthen the development of the Partnerships and underpins NOCRI’s commitment to clear and streamlined access to the UK’s world-leading clinical research infrastructure,” said Mark Samuels, managing director of NOCRI.