Research Grants Manager

Research Grants Manager
Contract type: Fixed Term Contract (24 months) 
Full time: 34.5 hours, we are open to a conversation about how you work these hours
Location: Hybrid between home and our London office (expected to be in the office at least quarterly). Additional travel required to events, conferences and workshops in London and nationally (approximately once per month).
Salary range: £62,500 - £68,500

Are you an experienced research funding professional who thrives on building programmes from the ground up? Do you want to shape a brand‑new Research Institute to improve the lives of people living with cancer?

We are looking for a Research Grants Manager to play a central role in establishing a new Research Institute to deliver world-leading, actionable research. The Institute will build Macmillan’s position as a national leader in applied cancer research, focusing on unmet needs, service improvement, inequalities, patient experience, and the wider non-clinical impact of cancer. This is an exciting opportunity to join us at a pivotal moment and help build a research programme with real‑world impact.

About us

At Macmillan you'll find talented people working together to do whatever it takes to support people living with cancer. We're going all out to find even better ways to help even more people who need our support. Our values are at the heart of who we are and everything we do, inspiring our thinking and guiding our actions.

Our new organisational strategy sets out how we’ll fight even harder to make every pound raised count for even more. With your help, we’ll transform cancer care for good.

About the role

As Research Grants Manager, you will establish and manage Macmillan’s research funding activities. You’ll help develop our research strategy, build a programme of grant funding, and ensure robust, equitable and transparent processes across the full research funding cycle.

You will work closely with senior clinical leaders, academic partners and research funders to establish Macmillan’s identity within the UK cancer research ecosystem and deliver high‑quality, strategically aligned research grants.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and deliver a research strategy and priority themes aligned with Macmillan’s strategy, in collaboration with the Chief Medical Officer and Research & Health Data Lead.
• Establish Macmillan’s research funding programme to enable the award of high quality, strategically aligned research grants to build national research capacity centred on people living with cancer.
• Design and implement application, peer review and award processes across the research funding cycle.
• Lead the planning, logistics and documentation for all research funding calls.
• Convene and facilitate expert review panels, including lived experience representatives.
• Oversee the management of the research grants portfolio, ensuring accurate records, reporting, auditing and impact monitoring.
• Build and maintain relationships with academic institutions, research funders and charities.
• Manage and develop a small team responsible for overseeing the administration of awards.

About you

The successful candidate will bring:

• An advanced degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., health policy or health services research, public health, social science, implementation science) or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience of establishing and managing research funding programmes, including application, peer review and post‑award processes within a research funder, charity or equivalent.
• Experience of convening and facilitating expert panels, including lived experience representatives.
• Experience in managing and developing a small team, fostering a collaborative and high‑performing culture
• Strong understanding of research governance, ethics, compliance and impact assessment frameworks.
• Knowledge of the UK research funding landscape and cancer research ecosystem.
• Excellent project management, analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly to a range of audiences.
  
  

In return, we offer a range of benefits including:

• 25 days holiday plus flexible bank holiday options, increasing by 1 day every year of service up to 30 days
• Pension matched up to 7.5%
• 120+ learning and development offers, with access to external professional qualifications
• Flexible working patterns, such as compressed hours, flexibility to work earlier or later around our core working hours of 10am-4pm
• Holiday buying and selling scheme, life insurance, free wills, retail discounts and much more

Recruitment process

Application deadline: 23:59 on Thursday 12th March
1st stage interview dates: 23rd and 24th March
2nd stage interview date: 2nd April

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed.

So that we can support you to be at your best during the application or interview process, please contact Macmillan TA Team TATeam@macmillan.org.uk for advice and reasonable adjustments. 

We welcome applications from everyone who meet the criteria and strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Macmillan. Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee representation body, ‘Our Voice’ and 8 Employee Network groups help us promote fairness and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people.