01 / Your project needs

Start with the expertise your project needs

“Find a leading expert in this disease” is a starting point. A useful brief goes further: what contribution do you need that person to make?

For an advisory board or an investigator meeting, that might mean experience choosing clinically meaningful endpoints for a trial programme. For a scientific education programme, it might mean deep understanding of a mechanism of action combined with experience explaining it to peers. For a device project, it might be practical knowledge of where diagnosis, referral and intervention sit within a care pathway.

ScienceLeadR connects experts with scientific topics, institutions and research activity. Its expertise mapping helps teams explore relevant domains and examine the work behind a potential match. See how the platform works.

Start with your indication, mechanism of action or technology, then define the role, geography and experience your project requires. That gives your team a clear basis for assessing candidates and explaining why each belongs on the shortlist.

02 / A 360° expert view

Build a 360° view of each expert

An expert can be a prolific author, an experienced trialist, an academically active clinician, a society leader or a skilled scientific educator. Those dimensions may overlap, but their importance changes with the project.

ScienceLeadR brings together scientific activity and professional context to help teams build a multidimensional view of expertise. Consider both the immediate contribution you need and the capabilities that may become important as the project develops.

Download a full, detailed CV for each expert.ScienceLeadR brings each expert’s 360° profile into a document your team can share and discuss. Medical Affairs, clinical and scientific colleagues can review the available evidence together, compare candidates and explain the contribution each person could make to the project.

These dimensions give context to a decision. A society position may be relevant to an education project; recent trial leadership may carry more weight when discussing a study’s endpoints. Editorial responsibilities add another perspective on an expert’s involvement in the scientific community.

The value of a 360° perspective comes from reviewing these dimensions together, using documented information where available and confirming project-critical details with the expert.

03 / Explainable evidence

Understand why an expert matches

An expert recommendation becomes useful when the team can explain it. ScienceLeadR’s approach combines connected scientific data with explainable AI, helping users explore scientific domains, contributions and relationships. Learn about its evidence-based approach.

For each candidate, the discussion can focus on concrete questions:

1. Q1Which publications or studies connect this person to our scientific question?
2. Q2What role did they play, and how recent is that experience?
3. Q3Which congress, society or editorial activities are relevant to the proposed assignment?
4. Q4What additional expertise or perspective would they bring to the team?
5. Q5Do we need an experienced key opinion leader, a rising star in the field, or a combination of profiles?
6. Q6Do we need to add diversity to our expert group, and which perspectives are currently missing?

This gives Medical Affairs, clinical, scientific and leadership colleagues a shared basis for discussion. They can compare the evidence, understand different priorities and document the rationale for their choice.

Explainability also helps identify what still needs a conversation: availability, communication skills, interest in the project and any relationships requiring disclosure.

04 / Three project scenarios

Put expert intelligence to work on a real project

01Expand an advisory board with the right trial experience

Suppose a biotech advisory board has strong biological expertise but needs someone who can challenge its thinking on clinically meaningful endpoints for a trial programme in a particular indication. An investigator meeting may need the same depth of practical trial experience.

ScienceLeadR’s investigator discovery and advisory board capabilities help identify candidates and examine their scientific activity. Explore these capabilities.

The team can review relevant studies and publications, investigate each candidate’s responsibilities, and consider how their experience complements the existing board. The next conversation can then focus on the specific endpoint questions, rather than establishing basic familiarity with the field.

02Find an expert for scientific exchange in a new indication

A Medical Affairs team may need someone with expertise in a specific mechanism of action and experience educating an international audience.

ScienceLeadR’s topic mapping, expert profiles and analysis of scientific activity provide evidence to explore that combination. Relevant publications help establish scientific focus; congress contributions and professional roles add context about participation in scientific exchange.

ScienceLeadR can also help the team choose the right expert for one-to-one interviews or meetings, in person or virtually, to discuss the project. These focused conversations can help clarify the scientific question, explore a mechanism of action and identify what the team needs to understand before planning wider scientific communication.

The team can use that evidence to identify potential contributors, then assess their ability to communicate the science, their understanding of the audience and their suitability for the specific educational objective.

03Identify clinicians who can inform a device’s place in care

For a MedTech project, the brief may span several specialties and stages of the patient journey.

ScienceLeadR’s collaboration and co-authorship network analysis can help teams explore researchers and institutions working across those disciplines. Explore collaboration intelligence.

This supports a shortlist of clinicians to consult about diagnosis, referral, intervention and follow-up. Scientific collaboration networks provide a starting point; actual referral patterns and local care pathways need to be established through relevant evidence and discussion with the clinicians.

05 / Build your shortlist

Build a shortlist your team can act on

ScienceLeadR supports KOL mapping, rising expert discovery and monitoring of scientific activity, helping teams look beyond familiar names and revisit the landscape as their needs evolve. Explore expert discovery.

A practical project workflow brings the evidence into the team’s decision:

1. 01Define the contributionAgree on the scientific question, expert role and immediate and future project objectives.
2. 02Examine the evidenceReview relevant activity, professional responsibilities and the sources behind each candidate’s fit.
3. 03Consider the balanceAssess diversity across disciplines, geographies, career stages and perspectives, including the balance between established KOLs and rising stars, against the project’s needs.
4. 04Confirm suitabilityDiscuss availability, interest, practical experience and relevant disclosures before an appointment.
5. 05Keep the picture currentRevisit the shortlist as new research emerges and the project moves into its next phase.

A wider search can help a team consider expertise it might otherwise miss. It also creates an opportunity to review the group’s balance deliberately, including multidisciplinary expertise, geographic representation and perspectives relevant to the people the project serves.

06 / Common questions

Frequently asked questions