Director of Research

Are you a professional research manager ready to make the transition to leadership or already leading a team and ready to grow professionally and extend your reach? If so, you could lead the Medical Research Foundation’s Research department as our Director of Research.

This is an exciting time to join us. We recently launched our new five-year organisational strategy Giving hope through life-changing medical research and you will be crucial in helping us to deliver on this and achieve our vision of a world where medical research improves health for everyone.

While the last century has brought huge improvements in the quality and longevity of life, there are still many health conditions which impose a heavy burden on millions of people, in the UK and around the world. And in many areas of health there is a severe lack of research funding, which is holding back the scientific progress needed to change lives. This is where we step in.

Our mission is to lay the foundations for ground-breaking new discoveries and life-changing advances. We give hope to people whose health conditions are overlooked, by supporting research in areas that are underfunded. We invest in the brightest and best researchers, ensuring the next generation of scientists can continue to solve the biggest challenges facing human health.

In the last five years alone, we have invested over £25 million into life-changing medical research, focusing on areas that have historically been overlooked and underfunded. But there is still much more to do.

Looking ahead, we know that nine million people in England alone will be living with a major illness by 2040 – that’s 2.5 million more than in 2019, an increase of 37%. We will use our unique position, as a broad funder of medical research, to respond to these challenges and fund research in ways that will have the biggest possible impact on people’s lives.

We are broad and ambitious medical research funder and we operate to the highest professional standards. You will lead a department that funds research across the whole research spectrum from discovery to translation, and in a diverse range of priority areas including children and young people’s health, neglected mental health conditions and the impact of climate change on health. Visit our website to find out about our strategy to 2029: Giving hope through life-changing medical research.

As Director of Research, you will work closely with our CEO and will be responsible for:

• horizon scanning and landscape reviews to deliver our research strategy and ensure its continued relevance
• research funding competitions to deliver at least £5m new research per annum
• ongoing grant management of a £30m grant portfolio
• reviewing and creating funding schemes to address unmet need
• our framework for impact evaluation
• wider development of the charity through membership of our Executive Leadership Team.

We are looking for candidates with:

• significant experience working in a biomedical sciences research/funding environment
• significant experience of research funding competitions, peer review, and grant management
• experience of the evaluation of research outputs and impact
• experience of motivating and managing a team
• excellent communication and interpersonal skills, able to evidence relationship building with senior stakeholders and acting as an organisational representative
• a PhD in biomedical sciences or a degree in biological sciences (or equivalent experience) with extensive experience working in a biomedical sciences funding environment.

Our offer:

• from £70,000 for full-time 36 hour week; willing to consider part-time (min. 0.8 FTE)
• 30 days of annual leave per year plus bank holidays (some of which can be used flexibly)
• 10% maximum employer contribution
• Life insurance at four times salary
• Enhanced family-related leave and sickness leave
• Learning and development programmes and external training opportunities
• Generous additional benefits including regular team lunches, annual health assessments and optional social programme
• The opportunity to join a dedicated team making a difference to human health

Our team is proud to work for the Medical Research Foundation. We are ambitious for the organisation and for ourselves. We are approachable – providing advice to everyone and explaining our work. We are dedicated and committed to achieving the most for our donors and our researchers. And we are involved – constantly looking for new ways to engage and improve.

We value spending time working in-person to develop strong connections with each other and with our mission, and you will be based at our bright, plant-filled central London office for a minimum of three days a week, with the option to work remotely for the remainder.

Closing date: 09:00 Wednesday 11 December 2024.

In person interviews: January 2025.