Do you want to become a Clinical Research Associate? Here is some information to help point you in the right direction:
Job Description - 
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Each year, many new medicines are developed to treat a range of medical problems from common illnesses to life threatening diseases such as HIV, cancer and diabetes. At the same time, existing medicines have to be tested or undergo trials (known as clinical research) to ensure they are safe.
It is the job of a clinical research associate (CRA) to set up, monitor and complete clinical trials.
Clinical research may involve:
• trials on healthy humans to study the safety of products
• a study on a small number of people, eg patients in a hospital, to test for safety and the level of dose required
• studies on larger groups of patients to look for side effects and to check if the new medicine is better than existing treatments
• further studies at, or after, the launch of the new product to see if the medicine can be used for other conditions or for different groups of patients, such as children.
Associates usually work normal office hours, from Monday to Friday. Field CRAs may work on the road visiting trial centres, such as hospitals and doctors' surgeries.
Salaries range from around £20,000 to £50,000 a year.
A CRA needs to:
• have good written and oral communication skills
• work well in a team
• have strong organisational skills and an eye for detail
• have a mature and responsible attitude
• be interested in life sciences, including biology.
The normal entry requirement is a relevant life science degree, such as pharmacology, pharmacy, biochemistry, physiology or toxicology. Postgraduate qualifications are also useful. Competition for jobs is fierce, particularly for graduates with no experience, but once qualified and experienced, prospects are good. Most pharmaceutical companies are based in the south of England.
Training consists of internal training courses and access to external courses. It is likely to include clinical skills and data management skills, good clinical practice, standard operating procedures, and ethical and quality issues.
In order to progress, CRAs move up the career scale from Level 1 to 3, where Level 3 involves the management of projects.
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