Senior Research Manager/ Research Manager

Company Description

The NIHR is funded through the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and was established with the aim of creating a health and care research system in which the NHS supports outstanding individuals, working in world-class facilities, conducting leading-edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public. The NIHR Research Infrastructure provides a platform to enable research by creating an environment where early stage and applied research can thrive. Our Research Infrastructure consists of research expertise, specialist facilities, a research delivery workforce and support services. The NIHR invests more than £606 million a year of infrastructure funding through a number of different five-year infrastructure funding schemes.

Job Description

We are looking to recruit a Senior Research Manager and/or Research Manager to manage a high profile National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) portfolio of clinical and applied health research infrastructure funding schemes.

Senior Research Manager: Reporting to a Programme Lead, and working closely with the Assistant Director of Research Infrastructure, and the Department for Health and Social Care, the postholder will lead the planning and delivery of activities within their portfolio of schemes. This will include the development and delivery of funding competitions; the management of awards; and working with internal and external stakeholders to capture impact, promote collaborative working and other priority areas relevant to your portfolio.

Research Manager: Reporting to a Senior Research Manager, the role will cover the full end-to-end process of research management, from launching new calls for applications through to the active monitoring of funded awards. You will become the knowledge holder in a funding area e.g. experimental or applied health research.

We are looking for someone with a broad perspective of academia, funding, project management and health related policy. You will liaise with internal and external stakeholders, and provide our community of researchers with support and advice. You will be confident interacting with your peers and the external scientific community; able to demonstrate critical thinking, and an ability to influence and build productive relationships.

Key Accountabilities:

• Commissioning Research Infrastructure: Delivery of funding calls to award Infrastructure Centres and priority research funding. This includes the delivery of end-to-end processes including development of call guidance, FAQs, review of applications, support to funding committees (including minute taking and writing feedback to applicants) and overseeing the contracting process.
• Contract monitoring and annual reporting: manage any contractual requests/changes required during the lifetime of the award; requests for information (e.g. Parliamentary Questions or FOI requests), and review and feedback on annual progress reports to provide assurance on research progress, governance and management of the award.
• Secretariat for Directors fora and activities: Developing an annual programme of meetings to support the networking and collaboration of scheme Directors. This involves organising meeting agenda, developing content for papers e.g. data analysis, drafting reports, presentations and briefing documents.
• Flexible support to team and community: conduct additional administration tasks and provide a high level of support across the team at peak work times.

(For the Senior Research Manager role, the following responsibilities also apply)

• Developing the strategic direction for existing funding schemes: developing, project managing and delivering evaluations of current schemes to assess impact and develop recommendations for future funding calls. To deliver new funding calls, you will develop an appropriate assessment mechanism and suitable monitoring processes.
• Stakeholder engagement: Provide the research community with support and advice on local management of their infrastructure award. Develop an outward facing strategy and plan to support schemes in order to raise the visibility of the awards within academic, clinical, public and government fora.

Line Management:

• The Senior Research Manager post will be responsible for the line management of one Research Manager.

Qualifications

To be successful in this role you will have:

• A PhD degree (or equivalent) in biomedical or health sciences research (or significant equivalent sector experience).
• Relevant work experience, preferably including the delivery of research funding allocation processes, in one of the following environments: research funding body (either government or charitable), research management within the NHS or HEIs, industry or academia.
• (Senior Research Manager only) The ability to demonstrate an interest in the strategic issues in health and care research funding and policy.
• (Senior Research Manager only) Strategic thinker able to interpret complex information while having a clear view of the "big picture".
• Excellent project planning and management skills; able to prioritise and manage multiple tasks, working to challenging targets and deadlines.
• The ability to employ creative approaches to effectively communicate complex information to individuals and groups from a range of different backgrounds and different seniority levels.
• Committed team player with an ability to build effective working relationships.

Desirable Criteria:

• (Senior Research Manager only) Line management and staff development experience.

Additional Information

Why work for us

Join our team and you'll be working with an exceptional organisation who manage high quality health and care research for the benefit of patients and the public. NIHR is one of the UK's largest funders of health and care research.

Compensation, Benefits & Working Arrangements:

• Salary: £48,600 to £51,300 pa (Senior Manager) or £40,300 to £42,600 pa (Manager)
• Location: Twickenham, London / Hybrid working model
• Contract Type: Full Time,12 months fixed term contract
• Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week, 7.5 hours per day
• Annual Leave: 25 days, plus UK public holidays

Employee Benefits Include:

• Annual bonus, subject to company performance
• Enhanced Contributory Pension Scheme
• Life Insurance Cover
• Benenden Healthcare Membership
• Training and Development Opportunities
• Season Ticket Loan

NB: We offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, flexible working arrangements. This is an office-based, hybrid role with an expectation for all employees to attend our offices a minimum of 4 days a month, usually worked as 1 day per week, and may increase, subject to team requirements.

How to Apply

Please submit your CV with a covering letter (max 2 pages) which clearly demonstrates your experience against the required criteria. Please indicate in your cover letter if you are applying for the Senior Research Manager or Research Manager role. Any application submitted without an adequate covering letter will be rejected.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the advert will close on 8 December, so early application is strongly encouraged to avoid disappointment.

Inclusion and Diversity

LGC strongly believes that every job applicant and employee should be valued for their individual talents regardless of age, disability, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief. Short listing, interviewing and selection will always be carried out without regard to gender, sexual orientation, marital status, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, age or trade union membership.