Research officer jobs in London, greater london

Are you passionate about bringing science to life and making complex research accessible and inspiring to a wide range of audiences?  

At the British Heart Foundation (BHF), our research is at the heart of everything we do. With an active research portfolio of more than £400m, we fund world-class cardiovascular research that helps save and improve lives.

We’re looking for a Research Engagement Officer to help turn complex science into compelling stories, engaging experiences and accessible content that inspires people to understand, support and champion our work.

About the role

In this varied and impactful role, you’ll help connect BHF’s life saving research with the people who can share, support and champion it.

Through engaging internal activity, you’ll build knowledge and confidence across our teams, enabling colleagues and volunteers to talk about our research with clarity and impact. At the same time, you’ll source and shape compelling, accurate research stories for use across fundraising, marketing and communications.

Alongside this, you’ll support events and public engagement activity, working closely with researchers and colleagues across BHF to bring our research to life for a wide range of audiences.

In this role, you’ll:

• Deliver engaging internal talks, events and activities for colleagues and volunteers.
• Turn complex science into clear, compelling and accurate content in collaboration wider research engagement and medical team. 
• Develop and improve our internal research engagement hub, keeping content relevant and easy to navigate.
• Act as a trusted point of contact for teams looking to include research stories or researchers in their activity.
• Support public engagement and events, while building strong relationships with our researcher community to maximise engagement and fundraising opportunities. 

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This is a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of science, storytelling and supporter engagement, helping more people understand the impact of BHF-funded research and why it matters. 

About you 

You’ll be a confident communicator who can make complex research clear, engaging and meaningful for different audiences. You’ll also enjoy working collaboratively, building relationships and spotting opportunities to bring ideas to life. 

You’ll bring: 

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• Experience delivering science communication or research engagement activity, events or content
• Ability to translate complex research into clear, engaging messaging for different audiences 
• Experience creating high-quality content for non-specialist audiences (e.g. web, blogs, engagement materials)
• Strong stakeholder manger and relationship-building skills, with confidence working with colleagues, researchers and senior stakeholders.
• A proactive, organised approach with strong project or event management skills 
• A degree, PhD or equivalent experience in biological or medical sciences; experience in cardiovascular research and science communication qualification would be beneficial but is not essential. 

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What matters most is your ability to communicate complex research clearly, accurately and in a way that inspires people to care. 

Belonging at BHF  

We are committed to fostering a workplace where everyone feels valued and supported. Embracing different perspectives and backgrounds strengthens our organisation and empowers us to make a real difference together.   

To hear from our people, check out Belonging at BHF.   

Our people are at the heart of everything we do. By funding research across six decades, we’ve helped keep millions of hearts beating and millions of families together. We’re investing in ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world where everyone has a healthier heart for longer.  

Working arrangements  

This is a fixed term contract until 30 July 2027 covering a secondment.

This is a hybrid role, where your work will be split between your home and at least one day per week, on average, in our London Office. This may vary from time to time, so you will need to work in a flexible way to unlock your best work for our cause.   

Benefits and development  

At BHF, we offer a comprehensive range of benefits designed to support our colleagues’ wellbeing and professional growth.    

To find out more about our benefits you can download the Benefits document at the bottom of this page or check out our Benefits and Development pages.    

Need more help balancing your work and home life? Talk to us about what flexibility is available at the application or interview stage.  

Interview process  

The interview process will consist of two stages. First stage interviews will be held over MS Teams 06/08. For those successful, there will be second stage interviews in-person at our London Office w/c 17/08.

The Trust is recruiting a creative and committed Research and Policy Officer to join our team. Reporting to one of the team’s Research and Policy Managers, the successful candidate will play a significant role in developing and preparing the Trust’s research and policy outputs, working across the core areas of the Sutton Trust’s work (early years, schools, apprenticeships, higher education and access to the workplace). This will include helping to produce original, data rich and policy relevant research reports, along with contributing to other Trust research projects. They will also support the policy and advocacy work of the Trust, including performing background research on topics relevant to educational inequality and social mobility as required.

Main duties

• To contribute, with colleagues, to several data-rich research reports accessible to practitioners and policy makers, over the course of the year, as agreed with the Research, Communications and Policy leadership team

• To support the Sutton Trust's programme of research and policy work, including:

  • Providing staff with background research, analysis and data on relevant topics

  • Producing literature reviews

  • Supporting research funding bids

  • Providing administrative support

• Working with Communications colleagues to develop messaging and content for disseminating and publicising reports

• Supporting advocacy work, as required, with MPs' staff, civil servants, special advisers and other policy makers

• Other duties as necessary from time to time

Person Specification

Essential

• Excellent analytical skills and understanding of research methods, primarily quantitative research, as well as literature/evidence reviews. This should include significant experience of using data analysis software such as SPSS/Stata/R/Python or equivalent

• A qualification in a social science or other numerate discipline, including statistics, mathematics, economics, computer science, data science or similar discipline in the social or natural sciences at undergraduate level, or comparable experience

• Two years' experience working in research in a professional or academic environment (e.g., PhD, post-doc)

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• High degree of initiative and the ability to take responsibility for projects

• Personable, flexible and discreet; able to fit into a busy, small team in a fast-paced policy environment

• Sympathetic to the aims of the Trust and its mission to address educational disadvantage

• Eligible to work in the UK (see here for information about right to work)

Desirable

• Experience of conducting research using administrative datasets (e.g., National Pupil Database) or longitudinal datasets (e.g., Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset, Understanding Society, Next Steps)

• Knowledge of one or more of our priority policy areas (early years, schools, apprenticeships, higher education and access to the workplace), and the wider education policy environment in England

• Strong understanding of government and the public policy environment

• Experience working within or an understanding of the not-for-profit sector

• Experience in education (for example, as a teacher or in another front-line educational role), education policy or a closely related field

• A postgraduate qualification in a numerate discipline (see above)

Terms of Appointment

• Contract: Full-time, permanent

• Salary: £32,000 - £38,000 per annum

• Working location: Minimum of 2 office days per week

• Office location: The Sutton Trust, 9th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP. Our home working policy gives staff the option to work from home for up to 60% of the time, with approval from their line manager.

• Hours: The standard working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and may also be required to attend events/meetings outside of their normal working hours during weekday evenings and occasionally at weekends

• A DBS check may be required

Interviews

Applications should reach us by 5pm, Friday 24th July, with first round interviews held over Zoom on Monday 10th August, and second round interviews held at our London offices on Monday 17th August.

Safeguarding statement

The Sutton Trust believes that a child, young person or vulnerable adult should never experience abuse of any kind. We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people and to keep them safe. Therefore all posts undergo a safer recruitment process, including but not limited to, disclosure of criminal records where necessary and eligibility to work in the UK. We have procedures in place to promote safeguarding and a safe culture at the Trust.

Contextual recruitment

The Trust is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and that all applicants receive equal consideration for employment. We strongly encourage individuals from all backgrounds, including those underrepresented at present at the Trust, to apply for this role. As such we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ and from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. We are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming place to work and know that greater diversity will lead to even greater results for the young people we support.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for disabled candidates throughout our recruitment process and during employment.

We also operate contextual recruitment at the Sutton Trust. Our application process gives you the option to include information about your background, such as whether you were eligible for free school meals, whether your parents went to university, or whether you attended a state school. For more examples and information on contextual recruitment, please see our website.

Location (UK): Office Hybrid* - London / Sheffield
Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week
Benefits: Read more about the excellent benefits we offer on our profile page
Travel: Some travel may be required with in the UK

Join us and use your skills, knowledge, passion and energy to help us achieve a future free from arthritis.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with research experience to work within a team of experts in research strategy development, research delivery and research policy, to communicate the outputs of our research funding to diverse stakeholders across the charity.  

About the role

You will work within a dynamic and friendly team to help support our Research Programme Managers to develop and manage the Arthritis UK research portfolio. This will include collating and monitoring data from diverse sources to help provide oversight of our funded research. You will also work closely with other colleagues to translate our research outputs into a format that is clear and impactful to help teams across the charity achieve their strategic objectives. 

You will work across a diverse range of projects and will liaise with a wide range of teams from across the charity to help us to tell the story of our research investment. 

About you

If your knowledge, skills and experience include the following then we’d love to hear from you:

• A scientific degree or equivalent level of experience in medical research via the charity, commercial, health, higher education or publishing sectors. 
• High-quality verbal and written communication skills including being able to communicate complex information and requirements to a wide range of audiences and stakeholders. 
• A flexible and collaborative approach: able to work closely and adaptively with immediate team and collaboratively across the organisation. 
• Good information technology skills, including effective database/PubMed/internet search techniques and significant experience of using Microsoft Office Packages. 
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects, with the ability to prioritise and meet deadlines independently, including rapid turnaround requests. 
• Experience in a medical research environment. 
• Knowledge or experience of the research application, award and monitoring process 

*As a hybrid worker the expectation is that you will spend around 40% of your working time in our office spaces or working in community settings. As an inclusive employer we will consider home-based working for anyone where office-based hybrid working would be a barrier to being able to work for us, for example for someone living with a long-term health condition or disability.