UCI Policy Analyst

Join UCI at a pivotal time to impact the future of data & evidence for university commercialisation and knowledge exchange 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.

The work programme is currently focused on improving data and metrics in three key areas: (1) on university spinouts, (2) KE for regional growth, and (3) the contributions of universities to strengthening innovation, national competitiveness and economic growth. Weaving throughout the work programme is a search for existing and new data sources and tools able to unlock new KE metrics able to inform funding, government policy, and university practice.

UCI is now looking for an ambitious and collaborative Policy Analyst to support the delivery of strategically important policy-focused projects over the course of 2026.

A key area of focus for the successful candidate will be UCI's work programme to improve data and metrics on KE for regional growth. This is a high priority area for our partners at Research England. Among other things, the Policy Analyst will be expected to:

• Support the commissioning and delivery of projects by experts
• Translate emerging insights into practical proposals for new national data collections, for example by our partners at Research England and the Higher Education Statistics Agency
• Support the development and implementation of new data fields within existing national data collections

Beyond this, the Policy Analyst will be expected to contribute to:

• Developing high-impact, policy-focused materials (including policy reports, briefing notes, tools) and organising events and workshops
• Scanning key policy and practice developments and initiatives internationally and summarising key insights for policymakers and university practitioners
• Supporting the collection and analysis of data to support project delivery

Among other things, the successful candidate will have:

• A keen interest in research commercialisation, technology transfer, knowledge exchange and innovation processes
• Experience in producing high-impact, policy-focused materials drawing on both academic research and insights from practice
• Excellent interpersonal, networking and communication skills
• A demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in teams to deliver projects with interdependent work packages
• Be able to extract high-level messages from detailed evidence, and communicate complex methodologies, concepts and insights to non-technical audiences.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 December 2026 in the first instance and, ideally, we are looking for someone to start as soon as possible in early 2026.

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

Please ensure that you include both a CV and covering letter within your application which should detail how you feel you meet the criteria in the person specification.

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

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