Scientific Programme Manager

at  Research Ireland

ABOUT THE ROLES

In addition to managing pre-and post-award programme delivery activities, Scientific Programme Managers actively contribute to policy and strategy development. Excellent scientific, analytical, programme management and leadership skills are essential for Research Ireland to deliver an ambitious programme which funds excellent research with high impact.
Under the current hiring round, Scientific Programme Managers will be assigned to teams within either Research for the Economy or Research for Society. SPMs will have responsibility for managing funding programmes and a portfolio of awards, depending on current and future business needs. These teams have responsibility for the development and implementation of Research Ireland’s suite of research and innovation programmes.
Research for the Economy has overall responsibility for coordinating an ambitious suite of competitive programmes that seed and scale research collaborations between industry and academia. A key priority is to evolve the Research Centres and other enterprise-facing funding programmes, to maximise their impact on society, economy and the environment through multi-stakeholder partnerships and enhanced researcher mobility. It also aims to drive regional innovation and entrepreneurial training through accelerating research to commercialisation within ARC Hubs. The successful candidate(s) will join either the Enterprise Partnerships team or the Research Centres team and will have responsibility for managing funding programmes and a portfolio of awards while also contributing to cross-cutting functions across both teams.
Research for Society leads on programmes that fund individual-led research grants for researchers at all career stages, international partnership programmes and PhD training programmes. It also leads on the development and delivery of a suite of challenge-based funding initiatives, including the ’National Challenge Fund’, and also leads on the Public Service Fellowship, forging researcher-policymaker collaboration. In addition, it leads on the delivery of a broad portfolio of Education and Public Engagement initiatives and funding calls, including flagship activities such as Science Week.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead on the development and management of new and existing programme calls aligned to Research Ireland and national research strategies to enhance research and innovation capability in Ireland.
• Management of programme review processes including the review of proposals, preparation of review documentation, conducting internal and panel reviews and evaluations.
• Development of the post-award management and evaluation process for the awards.
• Management and monitoring of awards; organising and conducting site reviews and preparing associated reports, annual/final report evaluation, analysis and follow-up on issues.
• Conducting regular engagement with funded researchers and research teams to assess progress.
• Management of direct reports and mentorship of trainees.
• External stakeholder engagement, including representing the agency on national and international fora.
• Development of innovative strategic initiatives and partnerships with external stakeholders, including those in the public and private sectors.
• Provision of technical consultancy to government agencies, departments, and external stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Corporate Communications team on programme calls and strategic initiatives.