Programme Manager: Industry Partnerships (SHAPE)

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About Us

King's is a leading UK research-intensive university, with strengths across a breadth of disciplines and a strong ethos of collaborative research with partners to develop innovation.

Innovation@King's (I@K), brings together the interdependent functions of Industry Partnerships, Translational Research support and Intellectual Property & Licensing as a single team.

King's College London is a leading research-intensive university known for high impact research across a wide range of disciplines and a strong ethos of collaborative research with partners to develop innovation.

Innovation@King's is part of the Research Management and Innovation Directorate, which facilitates and supports all innovative research across King's.

Innovation@King's brings together the interdependent functions of the Industry Partnerships team, the Translational Research Office team and the Intellectual Property & Licensing team. These teams work together with King's researchers to unlock innovative opportunities to discover, protect and create impact at scale, and champion King's pipeline of life-changing innovations with industry and investors.

About the Role

We are seeking a Partnerships Programme Manager to join I@K's Industry Partnerships team with a primary focus on sourcing, developing and securing innovation partnerships with third parties that are built around externally funded research and research related initiatives from our Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy / Environment (SHAPE) activities.

The SHAPE Partnerships Manager will proactively seek new external funding opportunities and muti-disciplinary projects, developing partnerships with research partners (including industrial both large and SMEs) and key external funding agencies.

The Partnerships Manager will also play a central role in the scoping, initiation, development and ongoing management of research partnerships with industry and other external organisations that are enabled through external research funding opportunities, with a focus on SHAPE opportunities. They will work closely with senior academic staff to define priority areas for partnership, identify and engage with suitable partners, and manage ongoing relationships to ensure success.

As importantly, they are expected to proactively identify candidate partner organisations and acquire knowledge of key market verticals that align with KCL research in the SHAPE space, as target areas for potential collaboration.

The role will work closely with the established teams within I@K, particularly a related Innovation Funding Partnership Manager focusing on identifying external funding opportunities that enable innovation development and partnership impact.

The ideal candidate will ideally bring experience of academic-industry partnership in SHAPE and key strategic external funding agencies such as Research Councils, Innovate UK and UK Government Departments. They will combine strong strategic, project management and analytical capabilities with diplomacy, negotiation skills and an ability to work well across functions and academic disciplines.

The role will report directly to the Director of Industry Partnerships at I@K.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a 3-year fixed term contract.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Postgraduate research experience in

i) a subject relevant to social sciences/arts & humanities or in

ii) life sciences/engineering sciences with a parallel cross-disciplinary or additional professional work or postdoctoral research (for PhD holders) in social sciences/arts & humanities.

1. Experience and understanding of the innovation funding ecosystem.
2. Experience in and understanding of academic or industry R&D and demonstrable ability to map industry needs to academic expertise.
3. Ability to lead and contribute to complex, difficult projects, from conception to delivery and experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders to build teams, deliver key outcomes or resolve complex challenges across a wide range of activities.
4. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
5. Demonstrable presentation skills, including ability and keenness to present to audiences of academic and industry experts and other senior stakeholders, including internal and external conferences.
6. High level of work organisation, self-motivation, drive for performance and improvement, and flexibility in approach and attitude, possessing resilience, determination and diplomacy.
7. Comfortable working independently and able to build professional networks.
8. Positive and constructive approach, including when under pressure.

Desirable criteria

1. PhD or an equivalent level of experience in

i) a subject relevant to social sciences/arts & humanities or in

ii) life sciences/engineering sciences with parallel cross-disciplinary or additional professional work or postdoctoral research (for PhD holders) in social sciences/arts & humanities.

1. Experience in development and management of industry-academic research partnerships, or other relevant experience in the industry/academic sectors, including business development or consultancy roles.
2. Significant experience in developing strategic reports and business cases to support novel research and technology development as well as experience in supporting and advising/collaboratively working with others to develop business cases or project plans.
3. High level of numerical and data analytical skills, including spreadsheets and databases with demonstrable proficiency in use of MS packages (e.g. able to design complex spreadsheets).
4. Well-developed leadership and influencing skills with the ability to motivate and involve individuals and teams and the ability to negotiate in a complex environment.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click "Apply Now". This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our 'How we Recruit' pages.

Interviews are due to be held around mid-October.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.