Innovation and Business Development Manager

Arts University Bournemouth is renowned globally as a professional arts university, dedicated to turning creativity into careers. Our culture of making, performing, and shaping cultures is at the heart of our learning, research and engagement. Our values speak of collaboration, connectedness and innovative practice, underpinned by a passion for our academic disciplines and extensive partnerships with industry, professions and communities.

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and strive for our staff to be from diverse backgrounds.  We positively encourage applications from individuals within under-represented groups and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. 

The AUB Innovation Studio is an exciting and dynamic initiative to enhance how AUB works with our external and internal communities. The Studio houses a pre-start up programme supporting people turning their ideas into a viable business and it is the gateway for engaging with national companies on exciting research, innovation and prototyping projects. We work across all our disciplines for collaborative challenge projects and live briefs connecting staff, students and external companies to work on real challenges. Please see the AUB Innovation Studio LinkedIn page for some examples of our activity.

Reporting to and supported by the Head of Open Campus and managing the Innovation Studio Senior Officer, the Innovation and Business Development Manager will be responsible for leading the development, delivery and growth of the Innovation Studio.

Projects under the Innovation Studio bring together a variety of AUB stakeholders, including industry, civic communities and AUB staff and students through research and knowledge exchange. The post holder will lead on managing these projects. They will also lead on developing relationships with local, national and international stakeholders to design and deliver new projects including collaborative research, consultancy and have input into creating Continuing Professional Development opportunities.

Managing projects to successful completion will include budget management and monitoring & evaluation to embed continuous improvement and to capture the project’s impact. Project delivery and record keeping will need to be in accordance with AUB’s financial regulations and meet external auditing standards.

The post holder will be a confident self-starter and highly organised to lead on projects across a wide portfolio of innovation activity. As well as excellent project management skills they will have excellent written and verbal communication, experience of monitoring and evaluating activity, experience of planning and the ability to write and deliver reports to senior management and for external audiences. They will have a good understanding of the role the Innovation Studio plays in widening access to AUB. They will be able to evidence a strong commitment to delivering excellent experiences and a passion for creative arts education.

This position will include occasional late and out of hours working, such as the delivery of events. A flexible schedule will be arranged in consultation with the Head of Open Campus.

Interview Date: 27^th April 2023