Pre-announcement: ISCF Healthy Ageing Challenge Research Director and Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme

5 Aug 2019 12:15 PM

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has now announced its plan for delivering the Healthy Ageing Challenge, an investment of £98 million to enable businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver products, services and business models that will be adopted at scale which support people as they age. This supports the UK government’s mission to ensure that people can enjoy at least five extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035, while narrowing the gap between the experience of the richest and poorest.

Social, behavioural and design research undertaken as part of the portfolio of the Healthy Ageing Challenge will address key issues facing the older population and ways in which support and care can be delivered effectively. The research will augment the impact of other activities in the portfolio and inform a wide group of stakeholders, with the potential to enhance the competitive position of UK-based companies.

We are seeking a Research Director who will provide strong, authoritative leadership on research for the Healthy Ageing Challenge. A substantive part of the role will be to lead and co-ordinate the successful research projects commissioned through the Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme which will be commissioned through a call to open in early 2020. The Research Director will be responsible for the coherence of research across the portfolio of activity and for maintaining awareness of the domain and emerging evidence.

The successful applicant will be expected to have an outstanding track record of research leadership within the area of healthy ageing, and a broad understanding of the potential for different disciplines within and across the social sciences and arts and humanities to contribute to this research area.

The call for a Research Director will be led by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It is expected that the call will open in August 2019, with applicants indicating their intention to submit in September 2019 and submitting their full proposals in October 2019.