Zinc Innovation Partners
Research Associate
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Chronic pain affects an estimated 14 million adults in the UK. It is the second most recorded long-term condition in primary care. Yet across research funding, clinical training and NHS commissioning, pain is still treated mainly as a symptom of other conditions rather than as a subject in its own right. That condition-based approach leaves people whose pain is chronic, complex, or hard to attribute to a single diagnosis consistently falling through the gaps between services.
The National Pain Institute (NPI) is being established to close that gap: a new, permanent UK institution whose purpose is to turn what pain science already knows into what health services, employers and policymakers actually do - and to do so in a way that earns and keeps the trust of the people it exists for.
The NPI is being developed in partnership by Zinc Innovation Partners, Arthritis UK and the University of Bath. It is currently in a 12-month development phase - building the evidence base, the governance model and the funding case that will underpin the Institute's full launch by the end of 2027.
Working under the leadership of Christopher Eccleston, along with Polly Mackenzie and Rachel Carey, we are hiring three roles to lead this development phase. All three of these new roles are fixed-term for the development phase (approximately 12 months) though we anticipate opportunities for team members to transition into the NPI as it is established, or find ongoing roles supporting partnerships, social innovation and science commercialisation at ZIP if preferred.
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Research Associate
This is a broad support role across the whole development phase - pulling together the evidence base, contributing to landscape mapping across the policy, practice and investment ecosystems, and supporting the design of the NPI's 'sprint' programmes, which will be the Institute's core operating model for accelerating impact on a tightly defined problem area. You'll also help shape funding applications and keep the development team's workstreams on track.
We're looking for someone with real experience in policy research, social impact or commercialisation who is motivated to learn the others. This is a small team building something with no existing template to follow, so the ability to pick up unfamiliar territory matters as much as the experience you already bring.
What you'll do
- Support development of the evidence base underpinning the NPI's case, including research synthesis and landscape mapping across policy, practice and investment ecosystems
- Contribute research to the design of the NPI's sprint programmes
- Contribute to funding applications and supporting materials, including responses to funder feedback
- Provide general project support to the Programme Lead across workstreams - governance, stakeholder engagement, brand and identity
- Help track deliverables and internal learning cycles across the development team
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What we're looking for
- Experience in either policy (e.g. health policy, government, think tank), commercialisation (e.g. research translation, tech transfer, spinouts) or social innovation (organisational design, impact measurement).
- Willingness to learn the translation pathways you don't yet have experience in
- Strong research and writing skills, comfortable with academic and grey literature as well as impact and evaluation methodologies
- Experience of public and patient engagement and a commitment to the value of lived experience
- Experience in managing and co-ordinating stakeholders including contact management, communications and events
- Commitment to tackling pain and its impacts
Working at Zinc
We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including those with current or past lived experience of the issues we are tackling, and those from marginalised communities who are often disproportionately affected by them.
We welcome requests for flexible working and job sharing.
We offer 25 days’ holiday and an employers’ pension contribution.
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