Job Opportunity - Apply by 19th June 2023
UCI Policy and Impact Lead
Focus: Accelerating UCI’s impact on policy and practice
Location: Cambridge, UK
Contract term: The funds for this post are available until 5th April 2025 in the first instance, with potential for extension subject to further funding
Salary Range: £44,414-£56,048
Closing date: 19th June 2023
Apply here
Join UCI to shape the future of research commercialisation policy and university practice!
The Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI) is a leading UK centre of excellence dedicated to improving the evidence base and insights available to governments, funding agencies and universities to help them drive a step-change in university contributions to innovation through commercialisation and knowledge exchange (KE). Established in 2020 with generous funding from Research England (UKRI), our work to-date has had a significant impact on the development of government policies related to commercialisation and KE, and on university practice. UCI is based within the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering on the West Cambridge campus.
We are now looking for an ambitious and collaborative Policy and Impact Lead to help us accelerate and expand our impact and build out our externally-facing activities.
With funding now secured from Research England (UKRI) to expand our work and help them build a national capability for knowledge exchange evidence, metrics and data, we have exciting work programmes developing in the following key areas:
- What needs to be done to accelerate the production of high potential spinouts from university research
- How universities can develop to help accelerate breakthrough innovations delivering impact at pace and scale
- How universities can strengthen their contributions to their local economies
- Improving metrics and benchmarking tools for research commercialisation and KE, and shaping the future KE data collection and performance frameworks
About the role
Working closely with the UCI Director and team, the Policy and Impact Lead will be responsible for taking forward our impact agenda, with key responsibilities including:
- Developing and delivering high-impact policy/practice-focused materials and activities, such as policy reports, briefing notes, and workshops
- Contributing to the strategic development of UCI and supporting the Director with the operational delivery of the unit
- Keeping abreast of the latest developments in commercialisation and technology transfer policy and practice in the UK and internationally and capturing key trends and experiments in policy / practice-focused reports
- Developing a communications strategy and web presence for UCI to maximise impact
- Building and maintaining external relationships with key stakeholders for the benefit of UCI
The ideal candidate
The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of research commercialisation, knowledge/technology transfer or innovation processes, practices and/or related public policies and have some relevant professional experience in this area for example in a university, public policy organisation, think tank, consultancy, or private sector organisation. In addition, they will be able to:
- Develop and communicate high-level policy/practice-focused insights and messages emerging from research
- Produce high quality policy / practice-focused reports, synthesizing key trends and insights from a wide range of primary and secondary sources
- Deliver high impact workshops and events, and capture and communicate insights
- Work collaboratively in teams to successfully deliver outcomes
- Engage effectively with senior stakeholders and officials in the commercialisation ecosystem
The ideal candidate will demonstrate a strong motivation to helping policymakers and university practitioners develop evidence-led policies and practices to accelerate the commercialisation of research.
Further information and to apply
Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University of Cambridge.
For full details and how to apply, please visit the University of Cambridge Job Opportunities page.
Informal enquiries about the role are welcomed and should be directed to Tomas Ulrichsen, Director of the UCI, at tc267@cam.ac.uk. If you have any questions about the application process, please contact the HR Office at the Department of Engineering (hr-office@eng.cam.ac.uk, +44 (0)1223 332615).
Please quote reference NM36554 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
