Research & Stewardship Lead

This is an exciting time to join the Medical Research Foundation, as we prepare to launch our new five-year strategy. We are looking for an enthusiastic Research Operations Manager to ensure our systems and processes allow the very best research and very best researchers receive our support.

The Foundation’s mission is to drive the life-changing advances of tomorrow, by laying the foundations for ground-breaking new discoveries today. We know that many health conditions are overlooked and underfunded, that new health threats will continue to arise, and that there will always be a need for high-quality, high impact medical research.

You will help us deliver our Research Strategy by developing the smooth and efficient operation of our grant making processes, ensuring our research funding competitions and management of our grants portfolio are delivered to the highest standard and that our grant making processes are best practice.

 Your main responsibilities will be to:

• Develop our grants management systems and processes, identifying best practice and implementing changes where necessary
• Become the expert on our grants management software system and use of grants management analysis tools, providing updates on grants management data
• Change funding processes to ensure greater environmental sustainability of the research we fund
• Ensure our grant terms and conditions and policies are fit for purpose
• Engage with the wider research funding sector to identify best practices in areas of importance to us, such as peer review, research integrity, research culture and equity, diversity and inclusion
• Be the key point of contact with our Finance and Governance teams, and improve business processes between the teams
• Keep abreast of developments in best practice of research management and grant funding, and introduce improvements to processes.
• Monitor our use of data to ensure compliancy with all policies
• Work with Research Managers and Grants Officers to design bespoke funding competitions and standardise processes across all funding competitions
• Manage some standing Research Committees; for example, Research Organisation Due Diligence
• Assist in development and preparation of proposals, papers, reports, briefings and documents
• Engage with external stakeholders as a representative for the Foundation when necessary
• Manage and be involved in relevant project work
• Matrix management of a Grants Officer.

Who you are

You may be a Research or Grants Manager, or an experienced research or grants officer looking for the next step in your career.

We would like to hear from you if you can:

• demonstrate solid experience of working in a funding environment (e.g. charity, university, public sector)
• demonstrate experience of funding competitions, peer review of grant management
• communicate clearly in writing and verbally with colleagues external networks and co-funders 
• demonstrate good analytical skills
• work in an organised and methodical manner with excellent attention to detail
• demonstrate strong planning, organising and time-management skills with the flexibility to respond to team priorities and unexpected changes
• find solutions to problems by reviewing best practice elsewhere
• negotiate with a wider range of teams
• demonstrate high level of IT skills, specifically excellent M/S Word, and good M/S Excel.
• work confidently in a team and be self-motivated to work alone
• You may also be educated to degree level or equivalent experience. You may have a project or process management qualification, and experience in grants management software systems.

We will offer you

We will offer a salary of £45,000 to £47,000 depending on experience for a full-time 36-hour week (happy to consider part-time, min 0.8 FTE) and double-matched pension contributions up to 10% max employer contribution.  We offer 30 days of annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rata) per year, excellent financial, health and social benefits and an opportunity to join a dedicated team making a difference to human health.  We value spending time working in-person to develop strong connections with each other and with our mission, therefore we work from our London office for part of the week with the option to work remotely for the remainder.