The World Economic Forum and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) seek an André Hoffmann Fellow for a two-year joint appointment. The Fellow will be based jointly in the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (“C4IR”) in San Francisco, California, which is dedicated to addressing the possibilities and challenges posed by the explosion of technological innovation – from AI to biotechnology, and the Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS) in the School of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, which is focused on developing objective evidence on the clinical and policy implications of new technologies, particularly precision/personalized medicine.

The Fellow will work with Forum partners and UCSF faculty on initiatives to tackle policy and governance challenges related to accelerating precision medicine and realizing its societal benefits. This Fellowship position is unique in that it offers an opportunity for a mix of research and applied policy work leveraging the academic reputation of UCSF and the World Economic Forum’s global network of partners and stakeholders. The Fellow’s primary role will be to participate in and/or lead projects exploring economic or policy models, cost analyses, and or coverage and reimbursement relevant to precision medicine approaches, with a strong international focus.

Hoffmann Fellowship Program

The André Hoffmann Fellowships for the Fourth Industrial Revolution urge early-career scholars focused on environment, as well as other areas where technology, society, and policy intersect, to take an active role in shaping the world of tomorrow by being embedded in the projects run by C4IR. The fellowship develops a crucial link between primary research undertaken in top higher education institutions and the Forum’s policy pilots to benefit public-private collaboration on emerging technologies.

The Precision Medicine Fellow will have a joint appointment at the Forum and at UCSF, dividing her or his time between the two locations throughout the two years of the fellowship, supporting a close and growing collaboration between the two institutions. The Fellow will report to the Head of Precision Medicine at the C4IR, Dr. Genya Dana, and Dr. Kathryn Phillips, Director, TRANSPERS. The Fellow will have the opportunity to work on projects based at C41R and/or TRANSPERS as well as pursue relevant individual projects.

This Fellowship is designed to draw on and enhance the academic and professional skills of an early career researcher by creating a unique opportunity to work across a broad range of actors and disciplines to identify, evaluate, design and test solutions to address a key issue related to equitable access to precision medicine: the cost, coverage or reimbursement schemes for more personalized and targeted screening, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring tools and approaches. Precision medicine offers the opportunity to take a more tailored approach to diagnosing and treating disease, building on 4IR technological advances like increased computational capacity, large amounts of genetic and biological data, and sophisticated digital information platforms. Precision medicine offers the opportunity to deploy existing tools and approaches in a more effective and personalized way (and potentially reduce healthcare costs). At the same time, precision medicine includes new and highly sophisticated scientific and technological approaches to diagnosing and treating diseases that also carry very high costs. The success of a precision medicine approach hinges in large part on the ability to understand and manage costs, reimbursement and coverage as the field advances, with attendant innovation in supportive policy frameworks and governance approaches to do so.

The Forum and UCSF are committed to providing each Fellow with appropriate training and mentorship, including participation in select Forum events and access to special leadership and communications workshops, courses and one-on-one training provided through UCSF.

Key Opportunities and Responsibilities:

The Hoffmann Fellow will work with C4IR and UCSF staff on a mix of opportunities to join already ongoing or new projects and new research as well as projects that are chosen by the Fellow to advance their own scholarship interests. Examples include:

• Draw from relevant expertise in order to help identify high priority opportunities for policy and governance experimentation and scholarship in topic areas relevant to costs, coverage or reimbursement for precision medicine approaches;
• Participate in funded grants including those from the National Institutes of Health as a research collaborator by working on projects as a collaborator and/or co-author;
• Participate in career-development activities such as training and hands-on experience with grantsmanship and publication of the fellow’s individual research;
• Identify key stakeholders and develop a global community of interested partners and stakeholders related to the topic of costs, coverage or reimbursement;
• Provide methodological and subject matter guidance to inform the development of policy pilot project(s) around costs and reimbursement at the C4IR and TRANSPERS;
• Identify and address key research questions to deepen and strengthen projects’ technical and/or methodological underpinnings and outcomes;
• Help organize conferences and workshops on topics relevant to the project and research questions and/or attend conferences in order to present research findings;

Be part of project teams that engage business, government, civil society, and academic institutions in building selected initiatives, developing solutions, and taking those solutions into implementation.