I do agree with the above posts up to a certain extent. Yes the testing portion of any trial can be very time consuming and daunting but accomplishing your goals is the most rewarding. Ideally in a R&D facility, engineers draft the protocols and plans and most of the time test technicians are the ones that execute the tests which really takes a huge load off the researchers. As far as clinical research that must deal with patients directly is where the researcher might be needed to go through the testing from beginning to end. If you are interested in the research portion, you can go into the R&D, product development side of the industry and not necessarily the clinical research sector.