Research and Impact Manager

Terms: Permanent, full-time 37 hours per week

Closing Date: 4 June 2024 - 12:00 noon *Early Close:  We reserve the right to close adverts sooner than the closing date.   

Hybrid working will be available for the successful candidate, but there will be a requirement to travel to Milton Keynes on a weekly basis (approx. 1-2 days) for meetings and when required, as business needs dictate. 

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education.

The role

This is an exciting opportunity to work as part of the academic support team in the new Centre funded through Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Fund (E3) and work alongside the Centre Director and a multidisciplinary and cross-faculty research team.

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is based at the Open University’s Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) and it builds on the existing expertise and research excellence at the OU to respond to modern challenges facing online spaces – specifically those related to VAWG. The aim of the research team is to develop Centre’s staff, foster an inclusive and collaborative working culture and, by welcoming UK and international visiting fellows into the Centre, build capacity in England to tackle and reduce online violence against women and girls. The Centre is committed to capacity building to enable its long-term sustainability, fulfil its strategic research and impact agenda, diversify income and future research funding. It will work with local partners to achieve local and regional impacts by co-designing outputs and interventions that combine research and practice to overcome barriers to tackling online VAWG.

The Research and Impact Manager will support and work with other staff members (academic and academic support) in the delivery of Centre’s objectives. They will manage the Centre’s research, KE and impact activities, liaise with network of partners, internal and external stakeholders and support development of the Centre’s engagement activities.

This role is based within the Research, Enterprise and Scholarship Team in the Faculty of Business and Law. The key focus of the team is to support the growth of research, knowledge exchange, scholarship and commercial activity as well as partnership building initiatives to diversify income, provide effective service to academics and enhance reputation.

Skills and experience

Applicants should have:

• Awareness of the HE funding environment, the Research Excellence Framework and the ‘Impact Agenda’
• Previous operational and/or research management/grant administration experience
• Proven experience in managing multiple projects and stakeholders successfully  
• Previous experience of setting and managing finance budgets
• Understanding of effective social media engagement and management within HE/research context

What you get in return

We have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs.

We also offer a great range of benefits that support our employees and their families for the long term. Staff Benefits include an attractive pension proposition and 33 days holiday per annum pro rata, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure days.

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