The Research Lifecycle Programme is recruiting theme leaders to support and advocate for the research community during its next phase.

The Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP) will begin its next phase in August 2024. The programme will invest in people, systems and infrastructure to help ensure that The University of Manchester is able to deliver world-class research.

The next phase will see improvements in how the programme is managed and governed. These changes have been informed by the experience of delivering successful projects, and feedback from stakeholders across the University.

One of the key changes is the development of programme themes. These will enable us to group related projects together and ensure that they are helping to support the University’s strategic goals. Themes will be led and managed by a member of staff from within RLP and a representative from the academic community.

About the role

To help ensure that the University’s academic community is fully represented, RLP is recruiting academic leaders for each of the planned themes. Theme leaders will help the programme’s team to better understand the needs of academics. They will also act as advocates for the programme to help ensure that our work reaches and benefits the research community.

These roles will be bought out at 0.1 FTE.

Successful candidates will be responsible for:

• Working with colleagues to develop, and advocate for, the academic vision/theme plan.
• Seeking assurance that the theme initiatives are doing the right things in alignment with the University’s strategies.
• To provide an academic voice(s) at the RLP Programme Board, and other appropriate forums, as well as shaping the delivery of the programme.
• To provide an interface with senior academic stakeholders, keeping them engaged and informed.

A comprehensive role description can be found on our website as a Word document or PDF.

The programme is now recruiting academic theme leaders for:

• Skills and Workforce Development
• Collaboration and Partnerships

Skills and Workforce Development

Helping the University to recruit, retain and develop the very best staff by providing support, training and clear career pathways. 

Competition between universities to recruit is more intense than ever. In Manchester this has led to significant skills gaps and high staff turnover in key areas such as research support, early-career academics and technical staff. 

This workstream will develop an approach to recruiting and retaining staff in these key areas to create clear career and training pathways and support the development of a flow-to-work talent allocation model. This will feature research talent/expertise pools such as AI, spatial science, business and research consultancy to enable specific skillsets to be deployed efficiently and flexibly based on research priorities. 

A computation training hub based, in Research IT, will act as a catalyst and central point of access for enhanced training materials for the High Performance Computing (HPC) Computational Shared Facility (CSF), spatial science and AI. 

Success will see improved staff retention, improved training and development opportunities and clear career progression pathways within and between different faculties and schools for research support, early-career academics and technical staff. In addition, a workforce planning capability will be developed to ensure the University has the right skills available across academic, technical and research support teams.

To discuss working with this theme please contact Gail.millin-chalabi@manchester.ac.uk

Collaboration and Partnerships

Providing tools, support and training to make collaboration across and beyond the University, including with commercial partners, simpler and more productive. 

Collaboration, internal and external, is central to the success of the University. Therefore, the processes that support marketing, the capture of enquiries, their triage and management to completion need to operate in a professional and timely manner. This is not limited to business engagement but can include support services such as finance, legal or any other department that is part of the collaboration process. 

This workstream will address barriers to academic and commercial collaboration with a specific focus on the development of key long-term partnerships to unlock funding opportunities and enhance UoM’s reputation. 

Success will be measured by feedback from our academic and professional support colleagues, increased income, partner and customer satisfaction and in the longer-term improvements in the University’s reputation as measured by comparative ranking.  

To discuss working with this theme please contact bryan.archer@manchester.ac.uk or anthony.allen@manchester.ac.uk.

If you would like to discuss the wider aims and strategic work of the research lifecycle programme you can contact caroline.jay@manchester.ac.uk or robert.haines@manchester.ac.uk to arrange an informal chat.

How to apply

Applications should consist of a short (maximum two-pages) curriculum vitae and a supporting statement (maximum of one-page) that provides details of:

• The experience that the applicant has in delivering research and providing leadership and support to colleagues.
• The applicant’s ideas about opportunities for theme development and aims.
• How the applicant believes the RLP can add value to and support our diverse body of researchers at all levels.
• Experience relevant to one or more of the specific areas of responsibility. 
• Their approach and ideas in support of improving the environmental sustainability of our research.

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Applications should be submitted by email to rlp@manchester.ac.uk

Applications close at 23.59 on Sunday 20 October

Interviews dates are yet to be confirmed, but are likely to be week commencing 18 & 25 November.

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