The Centre For Long-Term Resilience is seeking a Biosecurity Policy Adviser to contribute to developing, evaluating, and advocating for impactful biosecurity policies aimed at reducing extreme biological risks.
About the organisation
The Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR) is a UK-based (London), non-profit and independent think tank with a mission to transform global resilience to extreme risks. We achieve this by working with governments and institutions, offering targeted, evidence-based advice designed to enhance understanding, decision-making and governance – with a particular emphasis on advising the UK government.
Key roles and responsibilities
Biosecurity policy development (approximately 60% of the role):
- Collaboratively developing robust and evidence-based policy recommendations.
- Refining policy suggestions through in-depth evaluation, analysis, and independent research of high-priority topics.
- Conducting literature reviews and summarising research and reports, including academic and policy papers.
- Liaising with relevant external stakeholders in academia, industry and think tanks to develop policy and reports informed by expert views.
- Presenting at biosecurity conferences, meetings and other public and private events, representing CLTR and our Biosecurity Policy Unit.
- Assisting with running CLTR biosecurity events, including workshops and roundtables, in line with our strategic priorities.
Government engagement (approximately 25% of the role):
- Liaising with government stakeholders, including planning, attending and leading meetings with senior government officials.
- Delivering research or policy analysis in response to high-value requests from government stakeholders, where and when these align with our strategic priorities.
- Evaluating government plans and strategies relevant to our biosecurity priority workstreams, suggesting areas for improvement and methods to support.
- Assisting with maintaining our positive relationships with current government stakeholders while actively strengthening our network.
- Connecting leading subject matter experts to government stakeholders.
- Promoting our policy recommendations to government audiences through private and public engagement, including media outreach.
CLTR teamwork (approximately 15% of the role):
- Working with the broader CLTR team to further the organisation’s mission.
- Contributing to the development and creation of organisation-wide policy frameworks.
- Participating in comprehensive stakeholder analysis with the broader team.
- Actively contributing to strategic plans, organisational development, and regular team meetings.
- Providing constructive feedback to colleagues and reciprocating with support for team inputs.
- Collaborating on cross-unit projects, uniting our policy areas and workstreams under the CLTR umbrella.
Experience and skills
The CLTR Biosecurity Policy Unit is looking for candidates with:
- Strong motivation to reduce extreme biological risks and alignment with CLTR’s mission.
- Experience in research, policy, or advocacy in biosecurity or a related field.
- A good understanding of the biosecurity landscape, with an awareness of key threats and relevant national and international governance measures.
- The ability to think clearly and independently about extreme biological risks, and the role of government in mitigating those risks.
- Strong research, critical thinking, and synthesis skills including the ability to conduct literature reviews and analyse and evaluate biosecurity-relevant technical topics.
- Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills.
- Strong project management and organisational skills, with a track record of executing tasks independently and effectively.
- The ability to balance deep thinking about our strategy and policy recommendations with the pragmatism needed to execute on their implementation.
- The ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality and discretion when required.