Are you a collaborative, flexible individual with proven experience of programme or research management? Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people, and their families? Then join Nesta as an Assistant Programme Manager working in the research team in our What Works Centre – an exciting ‘social start-up’ created to foster evidence-informed practice in the children’s social care sector.
Nesta is a global innovation foundation. We back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time. Our mission is to spark and shape new ideas that improve how the world works for everyone. We use our knowledge, networks, funding and skills – working in partnership with others, including governments, businesses and charities. We are a UK charity but work all over the world, supported by a financial endowment.
The What Works Centre is a fantastic opportunity to make a difference to the lives of children and their families in England. Every year, more than 700,000 children and young people, and their families, have contact with the children’s social care sector and changes in how the sector supports them can have significant long-term effects. To combat this, our new centre will sponsor new practice-focused research and investigate and address the barriers that prevent practice leaders and practitioners from using insights from evidence to inform decisions.
The role
As Assistant Programme Manager, you will play a key role in building internal commissioning capacity during our set up phase. Providing programme support to the research team on existing programmes, you will also facilitate the commissioning and competitive funding of research. Through our programme of work we will seek to understand how best to support social workers and young people in contact with the care system, from the point of contact and referral, all the way through to foster care and adoption.
Key roles and responsibilities
You will work closely with external stakeholders to monitor performance against milestones and deliverables and support internal project teams on planning, partner management, monitoring, reporting and budgeting. You will also be expected to:
- Support the set up of new funding programmes and processes including managing peer review and panel preparation
- Assess applications, including grantee and project due diligence
- Maintain databases and grant making information
- Contribute to the continuous improvement of guidance, decision making and grant management process.
Experience and skills
What we are looking for:
- In addition to your programme or research management experience, you will also have experience of commissioning and grant/contract management and be familiar with randomised controlled trial methodologies.
- A natural collaborator and networker, you are politically astute and are equally comfortable working independently or as part of a team in a fast-paced environment. You’re highly organised with attention to detail and you can quickly adapt to shifting priorities.
Additional information
How to apply:
- For further details about this post, and to apply, please visit our website.
- Closing date: 4 March 2019 at 5pm.
- First interviews will be held on 10th March 2019.