Actively recruiting

Scientific and Ethics Committee: Botanical and Pharmacognosy Scientist

Credentialed

An inaugural seat on the Scientific and Ethics Committee. Reviews identity, sourcing, voucher specimens, extraction, standardization, certificates of analysis, contaminants, adulteration, and batch consistency. This is one of seven named seats on the Scientific and Ethics Committee, recruited individually so that candidates can see exactly which seat they are applying for and what it requires.

An independent oversight seat. Service may initially be voluntary while Herbal Trials raises startup funding. The organization intends to build the capacity to support qualified professionals responsibly as operations grow. Any compensation or reimbursement must be properly approved, documented, reasonable, and administered under the conflict-of-interest procedures. Independence comes from authority, disclosure, recusal, and documented procedure, not from going unpaid.

Seat 2 of 7. Open. This is a named seat on a constituted body, not a general posting. Herbal Trials is recruiting each of the seven inaugural seats separately so you can see exactly which seat you would hold and what it is accountable for. See the full seven-seat architecture.

How this seat counts toward Committee composition

These are roster-level requirements satisfied across the whole Committee, not separate seats. They are why candidates are assessed against the resulting Committee rather than in isolation.

Primarily scientific: Yes
Primarily non-scientific: No
Wholly unaffiliated: No

Why this seat is indispensable. A generic clinical-research committee without botanical expertise cannot credibly evaluate the intervention itself.

Required

PhD, PharmD, MS, or equivalent expertise
Pharmacognosy, botany, natural-products chemistry, or botanical authentication

Preferred

Strengthens an application. Not disqualifying if absent.

Voucher specimen and herbarium practice
Experience with adulteration detection and supply-chain authentication
Familiarity with certificates of analysis and lot-release specifications

What this seat reviews

Botanical identity and whether the plant is what the protocol says it is
Sourcing, supply chain, and voucher specimen practice
Extraction method and standardization
Certificates of analysis and what they do and do not establish
Contaminants, adulteration, and substitution risk
Batch-to-batch consistency across the study product

Expected workload

Heavier on protocols involving a new botanical, a new supplier, or a change in extraction or standardization.

Compensation: Volunteer (uncompensated appointment)
Participant-facing: No
Credential required: Yes
Training before activation: Yes
Conflict review: Full disclosure & review required before appointment
Seat status: Open
Classification: Scientific
Term: Three years. Initial terms are staggered so the whole Committee does not turn over at once. Proposed charter term, subject to Board adoption.
Estimated future need: Recruiting now: required before the first study can open

Important boundaries

The Committee is not yet seated. No human-subject or animal-subject research commences until the Board confirms that all mechanisms required by the Framework are operational (§13.2). Before such research begins the Board must either seat this Committee or retain an external IRB, IACUC, or other independent ethics body qualified under applicable law to perform its functions (§3.1). Herbal Trials is seating the Committee.
This Committee is an institutional scientific-governance and pre-review body. It does not replace an Institutional Review Board. No human-subject study may open solely on the Committee's review; applicable studies must also receive approval from an appropriately constituted independent IRB.
Members review protocol design, botanical standards, manuscripts, and evidence grading. They do not conduct the research they review.
The Committee has independent authority to approve, require modifications in, disapprove, suspend, or terminate any research activity within its jurisdiction. No officer, director, funder, or other person shall override a determination of the Committee except through a documented appeal to a second independent ethics committee (Framework §3.4).
No member may participate in the initial or continuing review of a project in which the member has a conflicting interest, except to provide factual information. Members sign annual conflict-of-interest disclosures (Framework §3.3).
Appointment is by the Board to a specifically identified seat, after qualification, conflict, interview, and composition review. Support for herbal medicine or for the organization's mission is not a qualification.

What your application includes

Profile & contact
Governance & independence
Conflict-of-interest disclosure
Document uploads

What to have ready

A CV or résumé is part of every profile. For this role, also have:

Independence & conflict-of-interest attestation
Statement of interest
Publications, committee service, or oversight experience

What we’ll ask you

How you run the day-to-day of a study, and how you protect the people in it. Everyone also answers a few shared questions on research integrity and why this work. You answer these in your private portal after verifying your email. Your answers are stored with your private application and may be reviewed by authorized personnel when the role becomes active. They are never scored or rejected solely by an automated system.

Walk us through how you'd run an informed-consent conversation from greeting to signature, including how you'd handle a participant who seems unsure.
The day before a monitoring visit, a source document and the EDC don't match. What do you do?
How do you keep a demanding recruitment or visit schedule without ever pressuring or over-promising to a participant?
Describe your coordinator experience — study types, systems (EDC/CTMS), consent and source documentation — and what you handled independently. (optional)
Participant safety and honest data sometimes conflict with hitting enrollment targets. How do you hold that line? (optional)

Asked specifically for this seat

How would you establish that a study product is correctly identified, and what evidence would you refuse to accept?
Describe your experience with adulteration or substitution in botanical supply chains.
What does a certificate of analysis fail to tell you?

Never upload Social Security numbers, tax or bank details, or patient records. Herbal Trials does not sell supplements, make efficacy claims, or provide medical advice, and does not endorse any substance. Candidate substances remain unverified until studied.

More in Committee

Scientific and Ethics Committee: General Interest or Nomination Scientific and Ethics Committee: Clinical-Trial Methodologist Scientific and Ethics Committee: Biostatistician Scientific and Ethics Committee: Bioethicist or Human-Subjects Protection Specialist Scientific and Ethics Committee: Toxicology and Safety Specialist