Meet the Team

Dr Frances Shiely is Director of Education and a Senior Lecturer in Patient Focused Research at the HRB Clinical Research Facility at UCC and a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. She is founder and director of the MSc Clinical Trials at UCC on which she teaches, UCC lead for the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network and leads TRAMS (Trials Research and Methodologies Unit). Frances’ research expertise is in trial methodology. She has a research income in excess of €8m Euro. She co-leads the Communication working group for the MRC-NIHR-TMRP (Trials Methodology Research Partnership) and is an Associate Editor for the journal, Trials.

Shaun is a health services researcher interested in efficient trial design, particularly around inclusive recruitment and retention and the effective presentation of research evidence. He led the development of the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, a tool to help trialists design inclusive trials, PRO EDI, a tool to help systematic reviewers consider equity in their reviews, and PRECIS-2, a tool to match trial design decisions to what the users of the results need.

He leads an initiative called Trial Forge that aims to be more systematic about how we identify, generate and use research evidence in making trial design, conduct, analysis and reporting decisions. Finally, Shaun is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Trials.

Dr Jitka Rychlickova

Jitka Rychlickova is a clinical pharmacologist and Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology at Masaryk University. She is involved in teaching basic pharmacology and clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in undergraduate medical students. Her research interest is focused on the pharmacotherapy in critically ill patients. As part of CZECRIN, Dr. Rychlickova is a project manager of several clinical trials. Connecting this and the teaching experience, Dr. Rychlickova was part of several education project in the field of clinical trials. The last of them is the SENSITISE project. Dr. Rychlickova is also the tutorial leader for Designing and Conducting Human Clinical Trials (DSCHCT) at Masaryk University.

Dr Christine Kubiak

Christine Kubiak is Operations Director at ECRIN, overseeing operations, and contributing to strategic development of the organisation, its expansion and capacity building activities.

She has over 30 years of experience in biomedical research; initially as researcher and then as project manager and coordinator of clinical programmes in the pharmaceutical industry, covering the planning, setup and management of multinational clinical trials in various therapeutic areas, and the coordination of multinational teams. Later she worked in an academic clinical trial unit managing projects and the quality system.

At ECRIN since 2006, she played a key role in its development.

She is Pharmacist and has a PhD from University Paris XI in pharmaceutical sciences. She holds a Master in Quality Management from Bordeaux Management School and an Executive MBA from Milano Bicocca University (EMMRI). 

Dr Andrew Willis is a researcher with over 10 years’ experience in the development, delivery and evaluation of screening and prevention programmes focussing on cardiometabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension, in the UK, and as part of international research collaborations. His research interests include the development of novel effective public engagement strategies, encouraging diversity and inclusion in clinical trials and science communication.

Sarah is a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen where she works with Professor Shaun Treweek in the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation on a range of projects related to inclusion and health inequalities. She previously worked on the NIHR-INCLUDE project to address the lack of representation in health and care research and contributes to Trial Forge, an initiative that aims to make improvements across the spectrum of clinical trial processes. 

Dr Zora Cechova

Zora Cechova is a researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and the Centre of Excellence CREATIC at Masaryk University. Her research is focused on patient access to advanced therapies; that covers different regulatory pathways ranging from clinical trials to reimbursement mechanisms. Dr. Cechova gained experience in clinical trial education through several international projects. She is involved in teaching Designing and Conducting Human Clinical Trials at the Department of Pharmacology at Masaryk University. Zora holds a Master in Pharmacy and PhD in Pharmacognosy focused on preclinical trials from the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno.

Martina Esdaile

Martina Esdaile is focused on increasing the visibility of ECRIN to its various stakeholder groups all while ensuring a clear understanding of its role and missions. Her role includes direct contributions to capacity building and infrastructure development projects.

Martina has over 10 years’ experience in both project management and creation and implementation of pedagogical activities. Before joining ECRIN, she has worked as a project manager at the Centre for Faculty Development at St Michael’s Hospital and at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre both in Toronto, Ontario and as faculty developer at CentraleSupelec in France.

Martina holds a Bachelor in Psychology and General in Biology from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and a Master in Education and Training from Paris Descartes, Paris, France.

Vincent Russell graduated with a BSc in Business Information Systems and went on to complete an MSc in Multimedia Technology in UCC, before moving to London in 2001 to work in the music and media industry. He has extensive cross-functional experience in multimedia, digital marketing and production, gaining him multiple industry awards. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Digital Arts & Humanities / Computer Science, researching the effects of Spatial Audio on short-term memory in Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLEs). 

Robert Dudas has extensive project management experience, primarily focused on managing EU-funded projects within the higher education and public sectors. He has successfully coordinated multiple complex projects simultaneously, even during the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. His role at the University of Pecs involved establishing consortia, developing project plans, overseeing implementation, and ensuring adherence to timelines and budgets. Robert has demonstrated his ability to solve intricate project-related issues, such as legal conflicts and budget reallocations, while effectively leading teams and motivating them to achieve project goals. His proficiency in risk management, strategic planning, and communication across various languages further underscores his capability as a seasoned project manager. He is currently advising several institutions on matters related to grant applications.

Adriana Papiez is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology at Masaryk University, with 7 years of experience as a clinical pharmacologist in the intensive care unit (ICU). She is actively involved in educating undergraduate medical students in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. Papiez also brings experience from several academic clinical trials, contributing as a project manager and as part of clinical research teams.

Dr. Papiez holds a Master´s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno and Ph.D. in Intensive Care from Masaryk University, with a focus on optimizing pharmacotherapy in critically ill patients in the ICU setting.