Head of the Climate Solutions Catalyst - Undaunted

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The Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, was established at Imperial College London in 2007 to act as a central hub to pull together the different work taking place across the university that can help tackle climate change and environmental challenges. The innovation dimension of the Grantham Institute’s work is run under the banner Undaunted.

Undaunted’s mission is to nurture a climate innovation ecosystem that enables the creation of scalable innovative solutions to the climate challenge at pace. To achieve this mission, Undaunted is building a pipeline of routes into climate entrepreneurship, incubating innovators through our Greenhouse accelerator programme, delivering an ecosystem that empowers impact and creating a landscape where climate innovation can flourish.

We are now launching an exciting new experimental activity at the very start of the climate innovation pipeline: The Climate Solutions Catalyst. The objective of the programme is to test the hypothesis that the UK university sector has already made discoveries and inventions that can help tackle climate change, if only they can be found and supported properly. Working collaboratively with as many other UK universities as possible, and a full range of stakeholders, this two-year trial programme will try and unearth neglected climate solutions from the full breadth and depth of the UK research community, and then test potential support offers for these solutions and the researchers and innovators that discovered them.

This project has the potential to have significant impact in tackling climate change and improving the climate innovation pipeline in the UK and, eventually, more widely.

We are looking to for someone with strategic vision, management and analytical skills and the natural curiosity to lead this programme.

The Head of the Solutions Catalyst will take ultimate responsibility for the programme, its budget, its efficient implementation and the establishment of the Catalyst and associated activities as a reputable and important part of the UK’s climate innovation ecosystem.

You will have the chance to provide the programme with strategic direction and will work closely with the Director of Undaunted to consider the future of the programme, beyond its trial phase. Relationships will be important – you will manage three other team members (administrator, science and innovation officer and machine learning specialist) and build and maintain a range of relevant relationships. This emerging project has already attracted interest from a number of collaborators, and so we expect a lively and vibrant engagement across many different innovation and climate players. You will also be directly involved in some aspects of the project delivery which could range from the search activity through to the process of awarding small experimental grants or other test support activities for innovators.

You will be a senior member of the Undaunted team, and through discussion with internal and external partners, help to formulate and deliver on the key goals of the organisation.

The optimal candidate will be motivated to improve the process of delivering impact from scientific findings through innovation, particularly in the climate arena, and will be excited at the prospect of developing, influencing and guiding a new experimental initiative, with unknown outcomes.

We are looking for someone with a long-standing experience and expertise of working in innovation in the UK scientific community and a strong understanding of the climate innovation community, in particular. You will have the skills and ability to set up and manage this new programme as well as to take deliver some of the day-to-day activities.

The successful candidate will have a combination of strong interpersonal skills and analytical skills.

Please note this role will be based at both South Kensington and White City Campus

Should you require any further details about the role please email: Gosia Gayer: [email protected]

For technical issues when applying online please email [email protected]

Please note this role will be based at both South Kensington and White City Campus

This is a hybrid role. Staff working in roles that are suitable for hybrid working will normally be expected to work 60% of their time onsite. The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview.

More information is available on the following web page: Work Location Categories (from 30 September 2023) | Administration and support services | Imperial College London

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We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.