UCI Policy Data Scientist (Fixed Term)

Location: West Cambridge 

Join UCI at a pivotal time to impact the future of university commercialisation data & evidence for policy! 

The Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI) is a leading UK centre of excellence dedicated to improving the data, evidence 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. Funded by Research England (UKRI) since 2020, our work has had a significant impact on the development of government policies related to commercialisation and knowledge exchange, and on university practice. Our partnership with Research England currently centres around developing novel data, metrics and evidence on commercialisation and wider forms of knowledge exchange. 

We are now looking for a motivated and collaborative Data Scientist to work with the UCI team to play a lead role in delivering strategically important, data-driven projects over the course of 2026, supporting the unit's long-standing partnership with Research England (UKRI). 

We have exciting projects in key areas, with ability to influence the data informing commercialisation and knowledge exchange policy/funding approaches: 

• The expansion of the new university Spinout Register to integrate new sources of data (e.g. patents, people, funding, deal terms, investment);
• Building a comprehensive database of patents linked to UK universities; and
• Developing tools to systematically extract, interrogate and analyse text-based information available on websites, documents, grants etc. on the approaches universities are developing to support commercialisation and wider forms of knowledge exchange.

The ideal candidate will have a keen interest in research commercialisation, knowledge/technology transfer or innovation processes, with experience working with research and innovation-related data (e.g. data on grants, patents, publications), company-level databases, and/or web scraping tools.

Excellent interpersonal, networking and communication skills are required for this role as you will be required to work collaboratively in teams to deliver projects with interdependent work packages, as well as communicate complex methodologies, concepts and tools to non-technical audiences.

In addition to this, you will have:

• Knowledge and use of one or more programming languages e.g. R, Python
• Expert skills in tools for data extraction, integration, analysis and visualisation, pipeline development (use of APIs), version control (e.g. Git)
• Advanced skills in AI/ML and other analytical techniques to extract relevant insights from data
• Strong problem-solving skills and an analytical, solutions-focused mindset
• Strong project scoping, planning and delivery skills, able to translate user need into tangible projects and executable milestone-driven implementation plans
• Ability to work independently and in teams within an environment with limited existing processes or guidance, developing novel and innovative methods, workflows and protocols from scratch to meet project needs and ensure reproducibility and scalability

You will also demonstrate a strong motivation for undertaking data analyses with policy communities in-mind, to inform policy/funding approaches, as well as enthusiasm for developing their capabilities around advanced data tools and techniques.

This is a 12-month fixed term position until 31st December 2026 in the first instance. As such, we are ideally looking for someone to start as soon as possible in January 2026.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click 'Apply' above.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

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