Partnerships & Knowledge Exchange Lead

A Remarkable Place To Work

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more. Find out more about our benefits (opens in a new window) and join us to become part of something special.

Overview

RPI supports agreed University, Faculty and School priorities for research and innovation: income generation, research excellence, PGR experience, partnership development and knowledge exchange leading to income and/or impact and commercialisation of IP and student enterprise. Our focus is on delivering professional, value-add advice and support to our community of researchers and innovators. We are a well-connected team which understands the priorities of the organisation and our external stakeholders and customers and the external environment in which we operate. Team members collaborate, reflect, develop their skills and have a risk-appropriate mindset of continuous improvement to our processes, policy and approach. Demonstrating the impact of our excellent academic research in the real world to a range of audiences is a key priority. This role is a great opportunity to work with researchers to develop knowledge exchange activities, to develop and maintain non-academic partnerships and to build high-quality case studies of the resulting impact. We are at a critical point in our preparations for the next Research Excellence Framework, and your expertise will make a significant contribution in supporting, guiding and enabling the highest possible quality submission.

Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange Team Focus

The Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange teams will focus on a range of priority areas depending on the discipline area. In Engineering and Physical Sciences, a primary focus will be building partnerships in areas of research strength which will enable the University to secure income either directly or indirectly. In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, a primary focus will be on building partnerships to enable and underpin impact at national and/or international scale. In Health and Life Sciences, a primary focus will on securing opportunities for translational research income leading to impact. All will lead on significant Knowledge Exchange bids.

The Primary Focus Of This Role Is To:

• Work with senior faculty leadership teams to transform the University's research strengths into practical solutions and impacts which drive economic growth.
• Lead on the delivery of a culture of KE, Innovation and Impact and supporting academics on their journey
• Lead, manage and develop a team of KE Managers.

Typical Deliverables Will Include:

• Account management and growth of existing relationships
• Business development and prospecting of new relationships of strategic importance to the Faculties and the University.
• Manage internal KE Funding calls and specific impact funds, and support the selection of high-quality applications.
• Lead strategic KE bid development

Main duties and responsibilities

• Contribute to the strategic leadership for the overall Partnerships & KE Service, maintaining a focus on the University’s overall priorities and how the service can support them.
• Work closely with Faculty leadership to ensure that your KE Support Team is focused on the delivery of KE priorities in Faculty Strategies.
• Build a close working relationship with University Research Centres and Translational research centres to ensure that your team provides proactive and focused KE support.
• Build a close working relationship with the Regional Engagement Team, ensuring that you understand the priorities of our Regional Engagement Work Programme and how your team can deliver against these.
• Lead a team of KE professionals to deliver a quality knowledge exchange service that supports the delivery of faculty priorities.
• Foster a high-performing team environment by using coaching and mentoring techniques to develop individual strengths, responding to diverse motivations, and leading by example to drive continuous improvement.
• Work with allied professional services or other academics as appropriate, to support the development of KE projects (including IP commercialisation) and engagement with our research, innovation and teaching.
• Proactively network with potential external (non-academic) partners to understand their needs and identify common interests with our academics, including representing the University at relevant external events.
• Identify potential projects and KE opportunities with external partners, catalysing new relationships with potential academics.
• Support successful KE proposals, working closely with colleague across RPI and the University.
• Support Faculty Impact Managers and Departmental Impact Leads to develop a pipeline of excellent knowledge exchange projects, identifying those with the most impact potential, and leading your team so that it supports impact managers to maximise and robustly evidence the impact.
• Collate data on KE activity to support the continual improvement of data collection and presentation to inform strategic decision making (and UKRI monitoring exercises e.g. Knowledge Exchange Framework).
• Regularly share and receive information from interdisciplinary, faculty and departmental committees and across the Partnerships & KE Service on priority partners and projects.
• Lead on the organisation and delivery of knowledge exchange initiatives and events, including the continuous professional development of the service and its staff.
• Any other duties, commensurate with the grade of the post.