Position Details

Institute of Applied Health Research, College of Medical and Dental Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £34,980 to £44,263 with potential progression once in post to £46,974

Grade: 7

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to March 2029

Closing date: 3rd September 2024

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The National Institute for Health and Care Research HealthTech Research Centre in Devices, digital and robotics (NIHR HRC-DDR) is expanding its core team and looking to appoint a Public Involvement and Engagement Manager.

The NIHR HRC-DDR is a new £3m award to support the development of novel medical devices, diagnostics and digital technologies, building capacity for HealthTech research across the health and care sector. The core aim of the NIHR HRC-DDR is to drive life-changing research into health technologies, working in collaboration with patients and patient groups, charities, academia, clinicians, and industry. The centre is hosted by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and supports the generation of appropriate evidence to support necessary regulatory approvals and enable effective implementation of innovations. The HRC has core research themes of Medical Devices, Digital & Data and Robots & Autonomous Systems led by world class academics from UHB, University of Birmingham and Imperial College London.

By engaging and involving public partners in all our activities, we ensure that research projects meet the needs and priorities of communities, address inequalities in health and care, which can lead to improving health and wellbeing of people across our local communities. The team are seeking an enthusiastic individual to deliver meaningful PPIE to projects within the programme at all stages of the project/product lifecycle.

The post holder will be a core member of the NIHR HRC-DDR team co-developing and delivering a new Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy for the centre. The individual will ensure that NIHR HRC-DDRs ways of working with patients and public contributors align to the UK Standards for Involvement. This role will also contribute to the collaborative and sustained partnership working between NIHR Infrastructures locally (e.g. NIHR Birmingham BRC, NIHR Birmingham CRF, NIHR ARC West Midlands).

Role Summary

This post will work to embed public involvement in the NIHR HRC-DDR by building, developing and maintaining excellent relationships with diverse groups of patients and carers, patient and carer organisations, third sector organisations, faith organisations, and other stakeholders in the local and national health and social care economy, as well as a wide range of industry, academic and clinical partners.

Main Duties

• Responsible for the delivery of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) for the HRC through the provision of significant and high-level PPI management support. This may include the following:
  • Leading the formation of a diverse central NIHR HRC-DDR PPIE Community, creating an inclusive and supportive environment for mutually beneficial collaboration and involvement of public contributors in the governance and operations of the NIHR HRC-DDR.
  • Delivering project outputs aligned with the NIHR HRC-DDR PPIE strategy, on time, to budget and to agreed standards.
  • Creating and maintaining an overall project management plan for PPIE that encompasses recruitment of public contributors, training (for industry, academics and public contributors), PPIE quality improvement, and long-term partnership development.
  • Working with other members of the core NIHR HRC-DDR Team and NIHR HRC-DDR Public Involvement Community to develop and implement a new Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy.
  • Providing leadership to members of the NIHR HRC-DDR Community (clinicians, academics, industry partners, patient and public contributors) on all matters relating to public involvement and engagement.
  • Building capacity, skills and expertise in Public Involvement and Engagement in the NIHR HRC-DDR Community and West Midlands region through co-developing resources, providing support through drop-in clinics and delivering training.
  • Capturing the impact of involvement and engagement activities.
  • Inform regular reporting activities for NIHR HRC-DDR, such as Management and Executive Committee reports and reporting for NIHR at local, regional and national meetings.
• Coordinate the organisation of conferences/ meetings/ workshops/ dissemination events if required.
  • Working in partnership with regional and national Public Involvement Leads from NIHR Centres and other key national stakeholders as part of the One NIHR Initiative.
  • Facilitating the planning and delivery of engagement events and activities between local NIHR infrastructure and/or University of Birmingham and community organisations.
  • Developing and maintaining close working relationships with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and in local NIHR infrastructures.
• Co-develop communications, events, collaborative approaches and other activities to promote patient and public involvement, as well as implementing and contributing to current and future initiatives from the NIHR and wider stakeholders in health and social care research around good practice in PPIE.
• Ensure that priorities are balanced, taking action to deliver agreed deliverables against timelines.
• Maintain an up to date knowledge of PPI management methodologies.
• Source, analyse and develop insights from the data to inform evaluation and review of projects.
• Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
  • Developing initiatives/activities to increase the diversity of communities engaged and involved in health and care research.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Person Specification

• First degree in relevant subject or equivalent experience.
• Proven knowledge and experience of managing public involvement and engagement in health and social care research.
• Familiarity and experience with UK Standards for Public Involvement to develop working practices relevant to PPIE.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
• Proven ability to work as part of a team. Experience of designing and delivering public involvement and engagement events for a range of audiences.
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills to manage and deliver a range of initiatives and projects to tight deadlines.
• Flexible approach to working, including problem-solving skills, ability to adapt to unforeseen demands and a desire to develop skills and knowledge.
• Ability to write clearly for a range of outputs including reports, funding applications, websites and social media platforms.
• Excellent IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), the internet and social media.
• Awareness and ability to comply with data protection legislation for monitoring and evaluation purposes and ensure that all activity complies with these demands.
• Ability to deal with matters of a confidential or sensitive nature.
• Be able to work flexibly with occasional evenings and weekends.
• Willingness to travel within the region and to national meetings.
• Good understanding of key issues in public involvement, diversity and inclusion and relevant national policies and strategic documents
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area

Further particulars can be found here

Informal enquiries to Lucy Oakey, email: l.a.oakey@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .