NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) Operations Director

Job overview

The RRDN Operations Director is the senior officer responsible for the operational services of the RRDN. These services are delivered for the RRDN, partner organisations and research funders, with particular emphasis on addressing the needs of the life sciences industry (across both commercial contract and commercial collaborative research). These services include Study Support, Agile Research Support, regional support for Active National Delivery, Financial Management and Business Operations. The RRDN Operations Director line manages the Service/Team Leaders for the defined operational services.

This vacancy is only available to current senior management team members of Greater Manchester and North West Coast CRNs regardless of their employer and current employees of the host organisations of the two CRNs, which are Manchester Unviersity NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust respectively. 

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The RRDN Operations Director will support national and regional initiatives to help meet the research delivery needs of the life sciences industry, including providing a key account management function. The RRDN Operations Director will also work closely with the RRDN Strategic Development Director and ensure operational intelligence and expertise is used to strengthen the 3-year RRDN Strategic Implementation Plan.

From October 2024, the current NIHR Clinical Research Network will be changing to become the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN). The RDN will continue to support the effective and efficient initiation and delivery of funded research across the health and care system in England for the benefit of patients, the health and care system and the economy, with a name that better reflects the scope and purpose of the network to support:

• Clinical trials and other well-designed health and social care research studies (including studies that are delivered outside of an NHS setting);
• Public health studies that require the recruitment of individuals within an NHS setting (that is, acute, ambulance, mental health, community or primary care) or an episode of care which involves contact with the NHS.

Working for our organisation

MFT is England’s largest NHS Trust with a turnover of £2.5bn & is on a different scale than most other NHS Trusts. We’re creating an exceptional integrated health & social care system for the 1 million patients who rely on our services every year.

Bringing together 10 hospitals & community services from across Manchester, Trafford & beyond, we champion collaborative working & transformation, encouraging our 28,000 workforce to pursue their most ambitious goals. We set standards that other Trusts seek to emulate so you’ll benefit from a scale of opportunity that is nothing short of extraordinary.

We’ve also created a digitally enabled organisation to improve clinical quality, patient & staff experience, operational effectiveness & driving research and innovation through the introduction of Hive; our brand-new Electronic Patient Record system which we’ve launched in September 2022.

We’re proud to be a major academic Research Centre & Education provider, providing you with a robust infrastructure to encourage and facilitate high-quality research programmes. What’s more, we’re excited to be embarking on our new Green Plan which will set out how MFT continues to play its part in making healthcare more sustainable.

At MFT, we create and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, provide equal opportunities for career development that are fair, open and transparent, protecting your health and wellbeing and shaping the future of our organisation together.