About Royal United Services Institute
The Royal United Services Institute is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831.
About the role
RUSI’s Organised Crime and Policing research group is dedicated to understanding and addressing current and future organised crime and policing challenges, in the UK and worldwide. Reflecting the transnational nature of the threat, the work of the Organised Crime and Policing group currently spans the UK, Europe, Africa and Latin America, covering areas such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, environmental crime, illicit trade, strategy to counter transnational organised crime, policing, intelligence, technology and surveillance.
Key roles and responsibilities
- Research and publications: Thinking ‘outside the box’ to proactively identify new gaps or policy challenges to research in the field of organised crime and policing; conducting primary and secondary research; editing and supervising the outputs of other team members and/or consultants; production and publication of topic-relevant research, including peer-reviewed research publications, conference reports, literature reviews, commentaries, and guidance papers.
- Project leadership: Undertake project leadership and delivery of key funded research projects within the Organised Crime and Policing portfolio, including responsibility for budget management and other aspects of project and program management (as well as potential line management of junior researchers).
- Thought Leadership, development of new research ideas and fundraising: Contribute to identifying and securing new research funding in relation to innovative new projects in areas of subject matter expertise, thereby generating funding for own research areas. Responsibility for identifying research gaps in areas of expertise; developing concepts for new projects; identifying potential customers, stakeholders and sources of funding; writing proposals for research funding/tender responses; and developing network of funders and beneficiaries.
- Stakeholder management: Responsibility for relationship management with clients and donors at senior levels. Responsibility for developing and maintaining network of contacts, including other experts (think tank and academia), law enforcement, governments, international organisations, and the private sector.
- Communication and public profile: Bolstering profile of the Organised Crime and Policing research group through expert analysis, media engagement and other means. Presenting research to beneficiaries, technical assistance partners and other stakeholders; representing the Organised Crime and Policing research group at expert events and roundtables; and responding to media enquiries (print, broadcast, social media).
- Programme support: Ad-hoc programme support across the Organised Crime and Policing research group as required.
Experience and skills
Essential
- Substantial research experience or substantial experience as a practitioner or policymaker working on organised crime.
- Demonstrated expertise in key areas relating to organised crime and policing, as measured by (a) record of significant publication outputs and/or (b) recognition by external peers (for example, invited to meetings and events because of expertise, cited in other publications).
- Demonstrated success in leading the delivery of major research projects.
- Demonstrated ability to contribute to the development of research project funding proposals;
- Project management experience, including budget management and reporting;
- Excellent research skills (whether qualitative or quantitative), as well as exceptional writing skills and the ability to communicate to a high standard orally;
- Excellent administrative and organisational skills;
- Excellent interpersonal and teamworking skills, the confidence to develop new relationships and maintain existing relationships
Desirable
- Experience working in a not-for-profit sector organisation.
- Experience conducting research or managing projects in a range of locations worldwide including sub-Saharan Africa.
- Research or practical experience working on projects related to serious and organised crime in the UK.
- Specific experience in relation to the study of core areas covered by the Organised Crime and Policing research group (e.g. environmental crime, human trafficking and modern slavery, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, illicit trade, modern policing, technology, security and intelligence policy).