Dr Nik Zeps

Nik Zeps is an experienced Research Director with a demonstrated track record of leadership in clinical trials, biomarker discovery research, medical ethics and regulatory affairs. He is currently the Director of Operations for the Cancer Research Program at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. He was the Director of Research at Northern Health in Victoria from January 2023 to June 2024. From 2021 to 2023 he was a director and consultant for Chrysalis Advisory working for several state departments of health. He was until 2021 the Research Director of the largest not-for-profit healthcare service chain in Victoria (Epworth Healthcare), and prior to that was the Research Director for the largest non-profit health service in Australia (St John of God Healthcare). He is also clinical research lead for Monash Partners.

He has held leadership roles in National and International research programs including the NHMRC Research Committee and Australian Health Ethics Committee and the International Cancer Genome Consortium and currently is Co-Chair of the ICGC Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) working group. In these roles he has established an international reputation for effective development and delivery of policy into practice. In 2017 he was commissioned to co-write the current Australian Clinical Trials Handbook for the TGA and also was awarded the NHMRC Ethics Prize in recognition of his contribution to human research ethics in Australia. Nik was a founding Director of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) and leads the rapid trial start up and teletrials initiatives. He has experience in investigating complaints relating to research misconduct, research ethics and research governance processes at hospitals, universities and research institutes.

Nik has provided consultancy services to a broad range of health and medical research institutions including the University of Newcastle, Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, the Office for Health and Medical Research NSW, Barwon Health Victoria, Icon Cancer Care, the Queensland University of technology/ Queensland Health, The Department of Health WA, Deakin University and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.

• Research ethics governance
• Research ethics advisor training
• Clinical Research Ethics
• Clinical Trials
• Research integrity
• Publication ethics