Head of Research Impact Strategy & Delivery

Role Summary

The Head of Research Impact provides strategic and operational leadership for the development, coordination and delivery of research impact across the University.

Working closely with the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Impact), the Director of Business Engagement and Research Impact (BERI), and College leadership teams, the role holder will lead the development of a high-performing institutional approach to research impact—ensuring that impact is embedded from the earliest stages of research design, supported throughout the research lifecycle, and evidenced effectively for REF and other national and international assessment frameworks.

The role will oversee the University’s REF impact portfolio and preparations for REF2029 and future exercises, while also strengthening the University’s wider impact culture, partnerships, funding success, and regional, national and international influence.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Education and Experience

Educated to degree level or with equivalent professional experience gained in a research-intensive or regulatory environment.
Strong working knowledge, and experience of the UK higher education and research sector and environment.
Proven leadership and team management experience, ideally in complex matrix environments.
Specialist Knowledge

Extensive experience in research impact development and REF impact case study delivery, ideally within a research-intensive university.
Deep understanding of the REF impact framework, criteria, and expectations—including policy and sector developments in this area.
Advisory and Analytical Skills

Outstanding project and programme management skills, including timeline planning, risk management, and stakeholder coordination.
Strong data and systems awareness, ideally including familiarity with research information systems (e.g. PURE).
Communication and Engagement

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to influence senior academic leaders and coach case study authors.
Ability to analyse complex evidence, write persuasively, and support narrative development for a range of audiences.
Confident in building relationships and communicating with credibility at all levels, including with senior leaders, researchers, and external partners.
Collaboration and Influence

Experience of working collaboratively across teams to deliver shared outcomes.
Skilled in building professional networks and influencing change through constructive dialogue and engagement.
A strategic thinker who delivers; proactive, resilient, and comfortable working under pressure and to REF-level deadlines.
Organisational and Strategic Awareness

Good understanding of the research environment within a UK higher education context, and the operational realities of delivering a Research Excellence submission for a large and complex institution.
Proactive in keeping abreast of external developments and emerging change that will effect the development, submission and success factors for the REF2029 submission.
Values and Professionalism

Committed to academic values and the societal impact of research.
Collaborative and inclusive, able to build consensus across diverse disciplines and perspectives.
Innovative and improvement-focused, always seeking better ways to support research and researchers.

Background

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. As part of our professional services team, you’ll provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. We ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery

Research and Impact

The University is one of the UK’s most successful institutions in terms of research. In the latest Research Excellence Framework, we placed 10th in terms of GPA, with the highest rise in position of any Russell Group university, and with significant improvements across the breadth of our disciplines – a genuine University-wide achievement. Our areas of research excellence are unusually comprehensive for a UK university, with a submission to 28 of a possible 34 Units of Assessment in the REF2021. The total value of research funding won by the University has grown rapidly in recent years, and we now have a portfolio of over 2,800 live projects with an award value to the University of over £900 million. Following several years of growth in research awards, our annual research income is now over £220m.

Our research generates lasting regional, national, and international impact, making a positive different to the economy, our environment, and to people’s lives. Research Impact is core to the University’s Strategic Framework 2030, which sets out our ambition to be a global top 50 university by 2030. Our Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Dom Moran leads our institutional Research Impact Strategy- this aims to foster an environment that embeds impact from the outset of research. A team of Research Impact Development Partners (RIDPs) and Academic Impact Lead from across our university are helping to make this a reality.

We seek to be in the top 10 once again – or higher – for research impact in REF2029, are are seeking a strategic and delivery-focused leader to operationalise this ambition across the institution.

The Head of Research Impact will play a pivotal leadership role within the Research Strategy & Services Division (RSSD), taking responsibility for delivering and sustaining a high-quality, institutional pipeline of impact case studies and ensuring readiness for the next REF2029 and future exercises.