KTP Associate – Pharmaceutical Behavioural Science (Epilepsy focused)

Funded by an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership, you will be responsible for leading the development of a Behaviour Change Toolkit to support Desitin Pharma to enhance its marketing effectiveness. The toolkit will support Desitin employees to identify determinants of prescriber behaviour and develop approaches to addressing them; thereby enabling optimisation of prescribing practices, patient outcomes and prescriber relationships.

Duties and Responsibilities

To develop the toolkit, you will be expected to manage a key, strategic project within Desitin Pharma Ltd (with support from academic and company supervisors), ensuring that all defined targets and outputs are met within the timeframe.

You will be expected to develop effective working relationships with the Desitin Pharma team to understand current approaches to marketing, the context within which they operate and barriers to delivery. Working with the senior management team you will identify the strategic project to enable iterative development of your toolkit. Through accessing relevant training and concurrent mentorship from Desitin and academic supervisors, you will develop your understanding of marketing and behavioural science to enable you to build and test the toolkit as you work to deliver your strategic project.

By the end of the two-year project, you will have significant experience of pharmaceutical marketing plus unique expertise in behavioural science thereby enhancing your personal portfolio and marketability. This will enable you to choose whether to continue to operate within the pharmaceutical industry or a career in academia training future healthcare professionals in the use of behavioural science.

Why This Role is Special?

• Real-World Impact: Tackle a critical challenge in epilepsy care—improving prescribing continuity to reduce patient risk and improve outcomes.
• Career-Defining Project: Lead a strategic Research & Development initiative with clear commercial and clinical value.
• Collaborate with Experts: Work alongside top academics and industry professionals in medicines research, behavioural science, and healthcare innovation.
• Tailored Development: Receive a £2,000 annual training budget plus two residential management training courses through Innovate UK.

The project involves facilitating the transfer of behavioural science knowledge between the University of Leicester and Desitin Pharma Ltd and engaging with Desitin Pharma employees to ensure that the knowledge transferred is properly embedded and exploited. You will be responsible for preparing and presenting progress reports at project team meetings and representing the partnership at conferences and exhibitions. You will be expected to travel around the UK and internationally with expenses covered by Desitin Pharma UK and therefore willingness to travel and be flexible with work time and arrangements is essential.

You will work primarily from home, with in-person meetings with the project partners taking place at least once a month. Day-to-day supervision will be provided by a Company Supervisor, and you will also receive guidance from an Academic Supervisor as needed for the role. You will be responsible for ensuring effective communication and information sharing between the company and the academic partner.