Science, Engineering and Technology Board and Strategic Advisory Teams vacancies

Closing date: 24 November 2023
Number of positions: Various
Length of term: Two years
Time commitment: Up to 10 days a year
Remuneration: Travel and subsistence will be paid, along with an attendance fee per meeting; Applicable for both in-person and virtual meetings
Outcomes communicated: March 2024

EPSRC welcomes applicants for vacancies on our:

Science, Engineering and Technology Board (SETB)
Strategic Advisory Teams (SATs) for the following themes:
- digital security and resilience
- energy and decarbonisation
- engineering
- healthcare
- information communication technologies
- infrastructure
- manufacturing and the circular economy
- mathematical sciences
- physical sciences
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics

We are seeking applications from individuals with experience of industry, academia, users of research, and in the third sector and government organisations.

Who we’re looking for

We welcome applications from those who are:

in full-time or part-time work across all career stages
on sabbatical or a career break
based in academia (including research technical professionals and research software engineers), industry, the third sector or government organisation

You will not be required to act as representative of your own organisation, research area or sector, but rather as someone who is able to contribute on a non-affiliated basis, and will be expected to adhere to the seven principles of public life.

Person specification for SETB

The specific requirements sought for SETB members are:

an excellent record for your career stage in conducting, leading or directing internationally respected research
experience of working with EPSRC (or other similar organisations) to provide strategic advice, beyond the scope of your own domain expertise, for the development of long-term priorities for science, engineering or technology
experience of representing the views of the research, innovation and business community, and facilitating two-way communication between the community and EPSRC, other research councils or similar organisations
willingness to dedicate sufficient time to the role and backing or support from your organisation. Please refer to the terms of reference

Person specification for SAT

The specific requirements sought for SAT members are:

expertise relevant to the vacancies applied for. This could be in advancing knowledge, delivering impact, stakeholder engagement, community leadership or meeting the needs of business, society, or both
ability to take a strategic overview of issues relevant to the themes applied for. Issues may relate to one or more of research, skills and training, international context, impact, innovation, research infrastructure and interdisciplinary work
preparedness to develop, test and constructively challenge EPSRC and UKRI policies, in a flexible, adaptable, multi-stakeholder environment
willingness to represent the views of the research, innovation and business community, and facilitate two-way communication between the community, EPSRC and UKRI
willingness to dedicate sufficient time to the role and backing or support from your organisation. Please refer to the terms of reference

Vacancies

Vacancies are specified as open to:

academics: those employed by a higher education institution, meaning a university
industry or users of research, for example those employed by business (large corporation through to small and medium-sized enterprises), research and technology organisation, NHS body and independent consultant

This is to ensure a balance of representation across our advisory bodies. Multiple SAT vacancies may be filled by one applicant if the appropriate individual is found. You are welcome to apply to a maximum of two of the available vacancies.

Full list of available vacancies can be found in the further information section.

What you’ll be doing

Members of EPSRC advisory bodies are paid a daily fee and reimbursed for appropriate travel and subsistence for attendance at meetings. We may host meetings physically, virtually or facilitate a mixed attendance meeting (physical and virtual attendance).

Initial appointments will usually be for two years, with extensions at the discretion of the EPSRC. Appointments will start from 1 April 2024.

Role of SETB members

SETB provides advice to EPSRC Council and the EPSRC Executive. It uses scientific and technological insight to identify and champion bold new research challenges at the cutting edge of engineering and physical sciences for future investments across the breadth of EPSRC’s portfolio and also where appropriate reaching out into other research areas.

SETB also provides advice on the balance on specifics aspects of the EPSRC portfolio of investments as requested by the EPSRC Council or EPSRC Executive. Recent examples include EPSRC investments in research institutes and in Centres for Doctoral Training.

We are looking for new members with a broad view of research and innovation to join our SETB advisory board to provide advice and scientific guidance and act as ‘generous generalists’.

The board meet at least three times a year, typically in February, May and September. Find out more information about SETB.

Role of SAT members

The advisory teams are devised as a flexible resource, enabling heads of theme to obtain the strategic advice they need in a timely manner, drawing on a range of perspectives from across our key stakeholder groups. They vary in membership size depending on the needs of the theme. Further information and terms of reference for SATs can be found in the terms of reference along with theme-specific visions.

Each theme’s advisory team meets at least three times per year and may also be asked to take part in further EPSRC business (or other parts of UKRI as appropriate), including but not limited to workshops, advisory groups for specific activities and peer review panels.

Members of all advisory teams are expected to bring a broad strategic view to bear and to act as ‘generous generalists’, advising across the breadth of EPSRC’s portfolio and the portfolios of other councils where appropriate. Find out more information about SATs.

How to apply

Submission of applications for the vacancies opens on 5 September 2023 and closes on 24 November 2023 at 11:59pm UK time. Please ensure that your application has been submitted before this time as the application form will automatically close (even if an application is being worked on) and late applications will not be accepted.

Applications should be made through the Engagement Hub form. Your application will be final upon seeing the end screen: “You have completed this survey”.

You can apply to a maximum of two vacancies.

Applications are sought from individuals who feel they can meet the requirements set out above. You must apply individually: nominations from colleagues or organisation will not be possible. Universities, businesses, learned societies and other key stakeholder groups should continue to encourage and support suitable colleagues to apply.

Assessment of your suitability for the vacancy is made solely on the information provided in the application form. No other information will be used so you should take care to address all criteria.

Tips for your application:

think about how you address each of the selection criteria; do not just copy and paste from your website or refer us to your published work. While there is no minimum word count, you must provide adequate evidence to justify your suitability
treat all questions as important
do not just provide a list of previous positions. We want to know what skills you have used and gained in your current and previous positions or roles
consider using the STAR (situation, task, approach and result) approach when formulating your answers. Describe the situation, what your task was, how you approached it and what the result was
if you are applying for two positions, please ensure your application covers your suitability for both
have a look at the current SETB members and SATs members to see the range of people we have recruited in the past

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (EU) and Data Protection Act 2018, the personal information provided as part of your application will specifically be used for the purpose of administering this process. Also, aggregated anonymised data will be used for the purposes of monitoring our advisory and decision-making bodies.

Analysis of the information will be viewed by UKRI staff and external members that are specifically involved in the recruitment process only. Personal information will not be used for any other purpose without your specific consent.

For further information on how your information will be used, how we maintain the security of your information, and your rights to access information we hold on you, please refer to UKRI’s privacy notice or contact the UKRI information rights team by email: dataprotection@ukri.org

Ask about the vacancies or the recruitment process

Email

setb@epsrc.ukri.org or epsrcsatnominations@epsrc.ukri.org

How we’ll assess your application

Selection process

Step one

Applications will be assessed internally in January 2024 against the criteria outlined under the person specification, dependent on the role you apply for.

A shortlist of candidates will be made, determined by how well the candidate meets the essential criteria in the person specification.

Assessment is based on the evidence provided in the application and applications are anonymised (no names, organisation details, diversity data will be shared with the assessment panel) for this step.

Step two

Vacancies will be filled from the shortlists with consideration to the following:

provision of an appropriate balance of expertise across all SAT and SETB appointments
ensuring a gender balance in line with our ambition of achieving at least 30% participation of the underrepresented gender across SATs and 40% participation of the underrepresented gender on SETB, and an ethnicity balance in line with our ambition of achieving at least 20% ethnic minority representation across all advisory bodies
diversity of organisational affiliation and across the UK’s regions and nations

This step of the recruitment process will consider the balance across the emerging membership. It may, where candidates are of equal merit, take positive action to prioritise candidates based on gender and ethnic minority underrepresentation.

Individual diversity data requested during the application will be used solely in this step.

Step three

In February 2024, a sub-committee of Council, the Appointments Assurance Committee, will be asked to ratify that the appropriate processes have been followed by the executive prior to appointment of SETB and SAT members.

Step four

Once ratification has taken place, communications will be sent to both unsuccessful and successful applicants. This is expected to be between the end of February and start of March 2024.

Further information

Vacancies

SETB

There is a maximum of six ‘generous generalists’ vacancies (academic, industry or user).

SATs

Digital security and resilience:

digital twinning (academic, industry or user)
quantum technologies (academic, industry or user)
digital for defence, national security or both (academic, industry or user)
digital resilience of critical national infrastructure (academic, industry or user)
future of digital technologies or future of the internet (academic, industry or user)

Energy and decarbonisation:

power systems integration and flexibility (academic, industry or user)
decarbonising aerospace (academic, industry or user)
decarbonising land transport (academic, industry or user)
decarbonising maritime (academic, industry or user)
renewables energy technologies (academic, industry or user)
industrial decarbonisation (academic, industry or user)
carbon capture utilisation and storage or negative emission technologies (academic, industry or user)
end user in the energy and decarbonisation portfolio (user only)
end user in the energy and decarbonisation portfolio (industry or user only)
academic open vacancy across the energy and decarbonisation portfolio (academic only)

Engineering:

academic with an understanding of socially and environmentally responsible approaches to engineering (academic only)
chemical engineering (academic, industry or user)
engineering science or computational engineering (academic only)
engineering biology (academic, industry or user)
materials or mechanical engineering (academic only)
industry or user expertise in emerging technologies, for example robotics, AI and quantum (industry or user only)
early career representative (academic only). The successful candidate is also expected to act as chair of the Engineering Early Career Forum

Healthcare:

improving population health and prevention (academic, industry or user)
transforming early prediction and diagnosis (academic, industry or user)
discovering and accelerating the development of new interventions (academic, industry or user)

Information communication technologies:

computer vision, visualisation and spatial computing; potentially aspects of human-computer interaction and would appreciate additional sociotechnical, sociodigital and socioeconomic expertise (academic only)

Infrastructure:

high performance computing service management (academic)
early career researcher, digital or capital (academic)
international facility management (academic)
national or international facility user, UK-based (academic, industry or user)

Manufacturing and the circular economy:

design with sustainability experience (academic, industry or user)
circular economy technologies (academic, industry or user)
systems with life cycle analysis experience (academic, industry or user)
manufacturing technology (industry or user only)
materials manufacturing with sustainability experience (academic, industry or user)
digital technology with circular economy experience (academic, industry or user)
digital technology with manufacturing experience (academic, industry or user)

Mathematical sciences:

applied mathematics (academic, industry or user)
industrial user of mathematics (industry or user only)
operational research (academic, industry or user)
pure mathematics (academic, industry or user)
statistics, applied probability or both (academic, industry or user)

Physical sciences:

discovery-led research (academic only)
discovery-led research, with a focus on the frontiers of chemistry (academic only)
discovery-led research, with a focus on the frontiers of physics (academic only)
early career researcher or future leader (academic only)
experience of working in research infrastructure, managing a large facility or both (user only)
experience of skills and talent strategy development (academic, industry or user)

UKRI AI and robotics:

expertise across the breadth of UKRI’s remit, covering AI from fundamental mathematical and computer science research and AI deployment, responsible use of AI, AI use within research and innovation, component infrastructure, and AI policy (academic, industry or user)

The AI and Robotics theme within EPSRC is providing secretariat for a new advisory body, populated from existing advisory structures (other SATS, UKRI constituent advisory councils and more) and appointed posts through this recruitment exercise.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Diverse representation within our advisory bodies is important to ensure we include a range of opinions, experiences and viewpoints in our advice streams.

Appointments to the advisory teams are made primarily on merit and we are keen to obtain greater diversity across the membership. We particularly encourage applications from women, from people who identify as an ethnic minority, people with a disability, and other groups who are currently under-represented. We welcome applications from people based in all regions and nations of the UK.

We would particularly hope to continue improving the gender balance of the boards, in keeping with EPSRC’s overall goal of achieving at least 30% participation of women (as the underrepresented gender) across our SATs and 40% participation from women on SETB.

We are also committed to working towards increasing ethnic minority representation, aiming to increase the membership on our advisory bodies to 20%. This is part of our commitment to race equality and is one of our immediate actions.

From those applications that meet the essential criteria, we will ensure a diversity of membership from across organisations including academia, industry and other stakeholders, incorporating:

a balance of expertise and institutional representation
a gender balance in line with our ambition of achieving at least 30% participation of the underrepresented gender across SATs and 40% of the underrepresented gender on SETB
an ethnicity balance in line with our ambition of achieving at least 20% ethnic minority participation across SETB and SATs

The recruitment process will consider the balance across the emerging SETB and SATs and may, where candidates are of equal merit, prioritise candidates based on gender or ethnic minority underrepresentation. EPSRC will also seek to achieve an appropriate distribution across career stages.

As part of the application process, we will require candidates to submit their diversity data to help us assess and subsequently monitor the diversity of membership. This data will be collected, stored, and used in line with our strict General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2016/679 guidelines. The use of an individual’s diversity data in the selection process will be clearly outlined.

All diversity data that is used for monitoring purposes will be appropriately anonymised and aggregated according to Office for National Statistics rounding and suppression methodology.

Where participation in a SETB or SAT meeting or associated activity would involve additional care requirements, we have developed guidelines to highlight the support available to researchers with caring responsibilities.

We are committed to ensuring all meetings and events are as inclusive and accessible as possible. We will:

select venues that are accessible and where possible accommodate any specific requirement in our planning and organisation of an initiative to support wider participation
ensure attendees have an opportunity to raise any specific requirements or adjustments in advance
handle personal sensitive information in compliance with GDPR 2018

Last updated: 17 October 2023