Academy of Medical Sciences
Director of Grants and Programmes
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Job level: Director
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Role duration: Permanent
Department: Grants and Programmes
Location: Hybrid (minimum 50% in-person collaboration)
What This Role Is About
The Academy runs some of the most valued grant schemes and development programmes in UK biomedical and health research. Springboard Awards help researchers establish their independence. Starter Grants keep talented clinicians in research alongside their clinical work. Leadership programmes like FLIER develop people who can work across academia, healthcare and industry to tackle real-world challenges, and alongside these sit opportunities to spend time working in industry, the NHS or government. Moving between sectors should be a normal part of a medical research career (it is not yet), and much of our work is built with that belief: a more connected and mobile workforce is better able to turn discovery into benefit. Between them, these schemes change the course of people's careers, and the research they enable reaches patients across the UK and beyond.
This role leads that portfolio. The heart of the job is excellent delivery: schemes that are well designed and well run, and that make a real difference to the people they reach. You will work closely with the Fellowship, whose expertise and generosity run through the whole portfolio, and you will make sure the schemes serve the whole of the medical sciences community (across the devolved nations and the regions, in industry as much as academia), not just those already inside the most established institutions. And science is global, so this work is too: the portfolio draws on evidence and partnerships from around the world, and the mentoring and networks around the people we support reach well beyond the UK.
Today much of the portfolio's focus is research talent and careers. That will always be a substantial part of the portfolio, but over time we plan to expand it further. That expansion could go in several directions, and what matters is that we are taking an evidence-based approach to ensure that our efforts are responding to what the medical sciences sector needs. Whatever we launch next, the same principles apply: good design, sound funding, proper governance and solid evaluation, with our effort concentrated where it delivers the most impact. So the job is twofold: run today's portfolio brilliantly, and build the future portfolio. It is a role where you can see your work land in people's lives, with real scope to shape what comes next. And none of it stands alone: what we learn from the people we fund sharpens our policy voice, the community our programmes build strengthens our engagement and public trust work, and insight flows back the other way to shape what we design next.
As a member of the Senior Leadership Team you will share in the leadership of the Academy as a whole, working closely with the other directors: the Chief Operating Officer and the Directors of Policy, Communications and Engagement, and Translation and Enterprise. The relationship with Translation and Enterprise matters especially. That team will shape new partnerships and initiatives that your team is best placed to deliver, so the two of you will work in very close partnership.
What You Will Be Doing
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Delivering an excellent portfolio
- Lead the design and delivery of grant schemes and programmes setting a high bar for quality and keeping them centred on the difference they make to careers and, in time, to patients.
- Decide what the Academy should fund and run on the evidence you build and keep the portfolio focused and high-value.
- Build the capability to design and run new grants and programmes as the portfolio grows.
Leading and empowering the team
- Get the best from a talented team: give people space and ownership of their work, and back them with the support, coaching and development to do it brilliantly.
- Directly manage the Heads of Grants and Programmes, invest in their growth, and build an inclusive culture where people feel trusted and well supported.
- Manage a substantial budget with the Finance team, directing people and money where they have the most effect.
Working With The Fellowship And Serving The Whole Community
- Work in close partnership with the Fellowship, drawing well on the expertise and time that Fellows give in mentoring, on selection panels and in programme design.
- Make sure opportunity reaches beyond the usual places: across the devolved nations and the regions, across sectors and disciplines, and to people whose talents could shape the future of medical science.
- Bring new talent into medical sciences: strengthen the Academy's reach into industry, and draw in people from fields like data, AI and engineering who may not yet think of themselves as medical scientists.
Forging partnerships and negotiating well
- With the Chief Operating Officer, build and look after a strong set of partners for the portfolio: funders, charities, government and industry.
- Forge new partnerships that diversify the Academy's income, so we can offer the right grants and run the right programmes to close the gaps that exist in research careers today.
- Negotiate with skill and pace: some of the best opportunities involve a partner whose funding would let the Academy run something new.
Quality, governance and demonstrating impact
- Provide rigorous oversight, so schemes are delivered to the highest professional, governance, operational and financial standards, with sound contracts behind every partnership and the Academy's reporting and compliance obligations well met.
- Lead your team to work closely with the Academy's grant monitoring and evaluation function (which sits with the Chief Operating Officer) so the difference the portfolio makes, for individuals, for the research base and for patients, is properly understood, and act on what the evidence shows in deciding where to invest next.
- Keep sight of the public purpose of this work: better science leading to healthier lives, stronger public trust in health research, and meaningful opportunities for patients and the public to shape the work that affects them.
Important Dates
- Closing date for completed applications is 12.00, Monday 17 August 2026
- First interviews will be held week commencing 24 August 2026
- Second interviews will be held week commencing 31 August
If you have any queries about this vacancy, please contact rosalind.campion@acmedsci.ac.uk copying in ceooffice@acmedsci.ac.uk
Requirements
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What we are looking for
These are the areas we will explore with candidates. We do not expect anyone to arrive with every part fully formed, but the strongest candidates will be convincing across most of them.
- Excellent delivery A strong track record of running grant schemes or of significant programmatic delivery. Much of this is operational: catching problems early and getting stuck things moving again. It is also about making sure the portfolio adds up to a coherent whole rather than a collection of separate schemes
- Building partnerships and negotiating well A track record of building and sustaining partnerships with funders, delivery organisations and industry, and the skill and pace to turn them into agreements where appropriate. We will want to hear how you have handled a complex negotiation and brought it to a close. The Chief Operating Officer leads the Academy's income strategy, so we will also explore how you develop partners in concert with colleagues
- Range and credibility with people This role runs from Fellows (some of the most eminent scientists in the country) to researchers at the very start of their careers, and from government and funders to industry partners, in the UK and beyond. We are looking for someone with the range to work well across all of them and the credibility to be taken seriously at every level, and who is outward-looking enough to link our work to counterparts in other countries. We will also explore how you have widened access and drawn talent in from beyond the usual places
- A focus on impact A commitment to looking at what difference the portfolio you lead makes. We are looking for someone who treats evaluation as a source of learning and uses what it shows to decide what the Academy should do next, keeping sight of the people and patients the work is for
- Leading and empowering people A brilliant leader of people: someone who gets the best from a talented team by giving them space and ownership, backing them with real support and coaching, and building a culture where people thrive and develop
- Collective leadership As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you would share responsibility for the Academy as a whole, not only your own directorate. We want someone who takes that seriously, brings challenge where it is needed, and helps make the Academy a brilliant place to work
Benefits
We provide our staff with a comprehensive benefits package outlined as follows:
Competitive Rewards
- Generous pension scheme with flexible contributions - we contribute between 8% - 13% of your gross salary (with employee contributions of 3% - 8%)
- Life assurance at three times your salary
Work-life Balance
- Hybrid and agile working. 50% office attendance
- 26 days annual leave, plus Christmas closure days and bank holidays
- Buying and selling leave
- Family-friendly policies including enhanced maternity and paternity leave (subject to a qualifying period)
Wellbeing and Development
- Complimentary subscriptions to Headspace and Classpass to support your physical and mental wellbeing
- Support through tailored learning and development
Additional Benefits
A range of enhanced benefits become available once you've completed your probation period
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