The UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator (‘Ethics Accelerator’) is an academic collaboration funded by UKRI. The five partners are the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) and the Universities of Oxford, Bristol, Edinburgh and UCL. Its main aim is to harness and mobilise existing UK ethics research expertise to provide contributions to the multiple, ongoing ethical challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities include providing evidence, guidance and critical analysis on ethical aspects of decision-making in the pandemic response; enabling public deliberation around key ethical challenges; and identifying strategies to embed ethics at the core of future epidemic preparedness.
The Ethics Accelerator activities are organised across five priority areas task forces looking at different aspects of the pandemic.
The Ethics Accelerator is based principally within the Oxford University Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, but the Communications and Public Affairs Manager will be based at the offices of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in London.
The Council was established by the trustees of the Nuffield Foundation in 1991, and the Nuffield Foundation will be the employer of this position.
The role
The role of the Communications and Public Affairs Manager is to deliver the external relations strategy to promote the work of the Ethics Accelerator, ensuring a co-ordinated and consistent approach across the different streams of work and partner organisations.
A key part of the role will be to develop and implement policy and parliamentary engagement strategies to promote the work of the ethics accelerator amongst relevant stakeholders including parliamentarians and policy-makers. The post holder will be expected to plan systematic engagement with policy influencers and promote the work of the Ethics Accelerator through a variety of channels including the website, events, media and social media. Working closely with the different partners, the post holder will lead on public engagement activities and facilitate other public-facing activities.
The post will primarily be based and managed within the Nuffield Council on Bioethics but will involve working closely with the partner Universities and their communication teams.
The contract is fixed term for 9 months, with a view to the successful candidate ideally starting in October 2021. It's a full time position (working 35 hours per week) but part time arrangements will also be considered.
About You
Candidates must be self-motivated, with the ability to organise a varied workload. They will have excellent drafting and communications skills and be able to develop good working relationships across a variety of stakeholders, including academics, parliamentarians, senior officials and individuals affected by the issues.
We are looking for an individual with substantial experience in communications and public affairs work with a good understanding of the political climate. Candidates should have the ability to engage and enthuse others in the work of the Ethics Accelerator, and a proven ability to develop strategic relationships and partnerships. Some knowledge and understanding of policy issues in the biomedical field and the issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic would be advantageous.