Biomedical research officer jobs
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What you will be achieving
As a key member of the Academy’s Policy Team, the Senior Policy Officer will play an important role at a critical moment for the organisation. This role will help the Policy team to plan and deliver a new set of priorities for 2026/27. Relevant priorities for this role include, but are not limited to:
- Improving health outcomes in the UK and internationally.
- Mobilising the UK health research system to turn discovery into practice.
- Making the UK the best place in the world to have a career in medical sciences.
Within these overarching priorities, there are some distinct policy programmes the incoming Senior Policy Officer is likely to work on, which could include:
- Maximising the impact of medical sciences in prevention and early detection.
- Transforming the generation and application of clinical evidence to speed up translation from discovery to patient impact, ensuring equitable inclusion of underserved groups.
- Making the UK a global leader in responsible, effective and equitable AI and data use across the biomedical sciences.
- Conducting a foresight exercise to identify high-impact innovations that will be critical within the near future and ensure the health system is enabled to support them.
The Senior Policy Officer will be line managed by a Policy Manager.
What you will be doing
As Senior Policy Officer, you will lead on or support a range of policy projects and activities to inform and influence the policy landscape in accordance with Academy priorities. This work may include leading on or supporting the following:
- Major working group studies and corresponding outputs.
- Informing and responding to Government set pieces and announcements.
- Consultations and rapid responses, and shorter position papers.
- Roundtables, workshops, and other relevant policy events.
- Correspondence and briefings for senior stakeholders.
- Working closely with Fellows and other experts to identify and analyse key policy issues, gather data and expert opinion. Construct impactful conclusions and recommendations to advise internal and external stakeholders.
- Delivering implementation and follow-up activities on policy recommendations across external audiences and stakeholders.
- Maintaining an excellent understanding of the policy landscape by monitoring developments and key policy issues, including the use of animals in research (please see the Academy’s statement on the use of animals in research).
- Scoping potential new areas of policy work, and/or identify opportunities for the Policy Team.
External engagement
- Collaborating with organisations from academia, Government, healthcare, industry and the charity sector.
- Maintaining and developing an effective network of contacts across the sector (including our Fellows) to inform and increase the impact of policy work.
- Representing the Academy at external meetings, parliamentary engagements (such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Life Sciences) and political events (such as party conferences).
Supporting the Academy’s wider functions
- Supporting the Academy’s briefings and parliamentary monitoring functions.
- Coordinating across a wide range of Academy functions, including its Briefings, Impact, and Events capabilities, to maximise the effectiveness of policy work.
- Working with the Communications and Engagement teams to co-develop relevant outputs and activities.
- Briefing senior stakeholders for high-level meetings and events where necessary.
- Supporting the development of core scripts on priority policy topics across the Policy team.
- Supporting the Monitoring and Evaluation team with monitoring the policy team’s impact.
Budget and line management
- Occasionally managing policy budget lines.
- Occasionally supervising policy interns and placement students.
Benefits
We provide our staff with a comprehensive benefits package outlined as follows:
- Generous pension scheme with flexible contributions – we contribute between 8% - 13% of your gross salary (with employee contributions of 3% - 8%).
- Life assurance at three times your salary.
- Hybrid and agile working. 50% office attendance.
- 26 days annual leave, plus Christmas closure days and bank holidays.
- Buying and selling leave.
- Family-friendly policies including enhanced maternity and paternity leave (subject to a qualifying period).
- Complimentary subscriptions to Headspace and Classpass to support your physical and mental wellbeing.
- Support through tailored learning and development.
- A range of enhanced benefits become available once you’ve completed your probation period.
For more information and to apply, please visit our careers portal.
Closing date: 9.00am on Wednesday, 22 April 2026.
Interview date: Thursday, 7 May 2026 (held online).
Registered Charity 
Thank you!
The Academy of Medical Sciences’ FORUM is a neutral, independent platform for bringing together leaders from research, industry, the health system, charities and Government to share insight, exchange evidence and explore solutions to complex challenges in health and life sciences. Relevant Academy priorities for this role include, but are not limited to:
- Improving health outcomes in the UK and internationally
- Mobilising the UK health research system to turn discovery into practice.
- Making the UK the best place in the world to have a career in medical sciences
As Senior Policy Officer, you will help shape and deliver this high‑impact cross-sector programme — ensuring the Academy convenes the right people, on the right issues, at the right time. In the next year, policy areas you will work on may include prevention and early detection, using clinical evidence to speed up translation from discovery to patient impact, inclusion of underrepresented groups in research, and the use of AI and data across biomedical sciences.
You will lead delivery of a portfolio of policy meetings and workshops, produce influential outputs, and manage relationships across the FORUM network. You will use evidence, stakeholder insight and sound judgement to support decisions about where the Academy should focus its convening power, helping us maximise our impact while maintaining the high standards and values that underpin our work.
This role offers a unique opportunity to shape conversations across the life sciences and contribute to improving health through evidence-informed policy.
FORUM is a cross-sectoral programme, and we welcome applications from people with a variety of professional backgrounds. You might have experience in healthcare (including allied health profession such as nursing), medical research, Government, regulation, humanities, economics, community engagement, and/or industry. This list is not exhaustive, please do contact us if you would like to discuss the relevance of your experience.
Benefits
- Generous pension scheme with flexible contributions – we contribute between 8% - 13% of your gross salary (with employee contributions of 3% - 8%)
- Life assurance at three times your salary
- Hybrid and agile working. 50% office attendance
- 26 days annual leave, plus Christmas closure days and bank holidays
- Buying and selling leave
- Family-friendly policies including enhanced maternity and paternity leave (subject to a qualifying period)
- Complimentary subscriptions to Headspace and Classpass to support your physical and mental wellbeing
- Support through tailored learning and development
- A range of enhanced benefits become available once you’ve completed your probation period
For more information and to apply, please visit our careers page.
Closing date: 9.00am on Tuesday, 14 April 2026.
Interview date: Tuesday, 28 April 2026 (online).
Thank you!
Hybrid/London (50% office attendance)
We are seeking a Grants Manager to join the Research Talent, Policy and Programmes Team and take oversight for the delivery of a sub-set of the Academy’s UK and international grants portfolio to support our strategy, and – notably - our strategic priority to support the next generation of researchers to reach their full potential.
Working in a small team gives you the opportunity to develop line management skills, set and manage your budgets and be directly involved in securing funding for our schemes. You will keep abreast of developments in UK medical research funding policies and the wider career policy context to ensure that the Academy's grants schemes remain innovative, attractive and fit for purpose.
What you will be doing
Scheme Delivery
- Managing a subset of our portfolio of UK and/or international grant schemes, maintaining and developing robust operational processes in accordance with the high standards of the Academy.
- Drafting funding proposals, in liaison with the Head of Grant Schemes, for existing and potential new schemes.
- Developing and implementing new grants schemes and all associated processes and documentation, as required.
- Producing high-quality reports, briefing and updates for both an internal and external audience. This includes the preparation of papers for Council, Officers and other Academy meetings, as required.
- Being mindful of national and international developments in grant-making and exploring how the Academy’s schemes align with other emerging initiatives.
- Working with senior management to ensure the Academy implements best practice.
- Supporting with the monitoring of grant progress.
Line Management
- Line managing the Senior Grants Officer and overseeing their development.
- Supporting the Senior Grants Officer to administer their portfolio of grants, to include dealing with enquiries; the promotion of schemes; eligibility checking of applications; the organisation of peer review; the preparation of committee papers; attendance at panel meetings; providing reports and financial information; the awarding of the grants and their continued management; and providing feedback to both successful and unsuccessful applicants.
- Project managing and supporting other Senior Grants Officers.
Budgeting
- Developing and managing the budgets for a portfolio of grant schemes and/or activities, in line with internal management systems, to include the regular forecasting and monitoring of expenditure.
- Working closely with the Finance Department.
Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Development
- Establishing contacts and liaising with a range of stakeholders, including Higher Education Institutions, funding agencies, delivery partners, other professional bodies and early research leaders, in order to ensure the Academy offer is reflective of the current landscape and that we are responsive to continued developments.
- Liaising with the Academy’s Communications and Policy teams to ensure the grant schemes relate to the Academy’s wider strategy and to raise the profile of our schemes.
- Working across the organisation, with individuals from different departments and at varying levels of seniority.
Other Responsibilities
- Developing and overseeing meetings and celebrations for award holders, including regular inductions, training workshops and scientific meetings.
- Undertaking any other ad-hoc duties that can be reasonably expected of this post.
What you’ll bring to the role
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written).
- A confident and friendly team player/collaborator (within and across teams), who is comfortable dealing with individuals at a senior level.
- An enthusiasm (and ideally experience) for line management and helping others to develop.
- Experience and understanding of the medical research/academic environment.
- An interest in biomedical and health research.
- High level numeracy.
- Excellent IT skills.
- The ability to think analytically.
- A demonstrable ability to effectively build and maintain partnerships/networks.
- Excellent organisational skills.
- The ability to travel from time-to-time - either in the UK or overseas.
Benefits
We provide our staff with a comprehensive benefits package, including:
- Generous pension scheme with flexible contributions – we contribute between 8% - 13% of your gross salary (with employee contributions of 3% - 8%).
- Life assurance at three times your salary.
- Hybrid and agile working. 50% office attendance.
- 26 days annual leave, plus Christmas closure days and bank holidays.
- Buying and selling leave.
- Family-friendly policies including enhanced maternity and paternity leave (subject to a qualifying period).
- Complimentary subscriptions to Headspace and Classpass to support your physical and mental wellbeing.
- Support through tailored learning and development.
- A range of enhanced benefits become available once you’ve completed your probation period.
If you have any queries about this vacancy, please contact James Harden.
For more information and to apply, please visit our careers page.
Closing date: 5.00pm on 10 April 2026.
Interview date: w/c 20 April 2026 (online).