Senior Research Manager

Job Description

The Youth Endowment FundSenior Research ManagerReports to: Head of ToolkitPeriod: Fixed term for 2 years, with a possibility of an extensionRate: £47-50kClosing date: 9am, 24th MayInterviews: Week commencing 31st MayThis role has been revised since it was first advertised.About the Youth Endowment Fund In recent years there has been a significant increase in violent crime. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. For children and young people, there have been particularly large increases in those who are both the perpetrators and victims of offences involving knives. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.The Youth Endowment Fund is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children and young people from getting caught up in violent crime. Many organisations have this calling. Our unique role is to identify what works best and build a movement to put it into practice. We do this by finding the very best ways to prevent youth violence, funding great initiatives and working to scale them up and spread great ideas.We believe that rigorous research can help us understand the approaches, programmes and practices that hold the most promise for keeping children safe. However, too often this research is hidden behind a paywall, written in academic jargon and difficult to apply to practice. The YEF is developing a series of resources which overcome these barriers and ensure research can make a difference to real-world challenges. The Senior Research Manager will play a key role in ensuring that the YEF develops evidence-based resources that lead to change. For example, two key resources you will work on are: The YEF evidence and gaps map. The current version of the map was published In January 2021 and features over 2,000 studies. This is the worlds largest database of studies on interventions that aim to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. The YEF Toolkit - a free-to-access, online summary of research on preventing young people getting involved in violent crime. It aims to make research findings accessible and easy-to-understand for a non-academic audience. It will give an overview of the best bets for reducing violence - an overall picture of the approaches that are most likely to succeed, given the available research. Key Responsibilities and Projects You will be responsible for leading and supporting a range of research projects and accessible resources that are central to YEFs mission. This will include: Leading the generation of new evidence synthesis to support the YEFs work. You will be the YEFs expert on evidence synthesis. You will have responsibility for ensuring that all YEF reviews are completed to the highest standards. Leading a major project to commission a batch of new systematic reviews. These reviews will be the foundation for YEFs evidence tools over the next three years. You will ensure that these reviews address strategically important questions and provide information which helps the YEF bring about change. Leading a complex project to expand and update the YEFs Evidence and Gaps Map (EGM). You will be responsible for managing the external research partner who develops this database. You will commission work which uses the database to address important questions and generate new insights. Leading the development of new evidence-informed tools and resources. You will use findings from evidence synthesis to design and develop innovative and impactful resources which enable the application of research in practice. Work with the Head of Toolkit to ensure that Toolkit content is rigorously researched but easy to understand and apply. You will take a lead in writing content for sections of the Toolkit. Contributing research to support the scoping, development and delivery of YEFs grant making. Ensuring that YEF strategy and decision-making are informed by the best available research. Developing a process for reviewing and editing YEF evaluation reports. Every programme the YEF funds will be independently evaluated and the report published online. You will work with the YEF evaluation team to ensure these reports are accessible and useful. Managing and supporting junior staff in the Evidence and Evaluation Team.Key Requirements You are this sort of person: You dont want your days to pass without making a difference. You want to play a significant part in reducing the level of youth violence. You are passionate about the potential for rigorous and accessible research to transform the way we protect children and help them to thrive. You have a proven track record of commissioning or conducting high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analysis. You have a good understanding of these methods and can discuss the pros and cons of them. You might have gained this expertise through your academic studies, training, research or professional experience. You have at least 5 years experience working in a research and evidence role in a related sector. You have a strong understanding of evaluation and/or evidence review methodologies. You can critically appraise the design of evaluations and reviews. You have experience of managing complex projects. You put the right plans in place and develop the necessary relationships to deliver them on time and to a high quality. You can write well. You have that rare skill of writing in plain English. You avoid jargon. If something is complicated, you are good at explaining it. You are fascinated by and thoughtful about how people engage with research. You can present information so that people find it engaging, use it, recommend it to others and return to it. You understand why people resist making evidence-based decisions. You come alive talking about how to make information and evidence really accessible so that people change what they do. You are actively engaged in the latest debates about how research is used. You learn fast but remain humble. You are very quick at getting your head around things. You like learning. You are very good at synthesising information. You know how much you dont know. You know that you can learn more. You know that its easy to assume you know when you dont. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You are a great and supportive team player. You are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. You believe and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, views and values.You may have: Knowledge and understanding of crime or serious violence. You know the facts, understand the issues, know the key people, and can discuss the theories. You are knowledgeable on this topic and very at ease discussing it with experts. Experience of working directly on the prevention of violence or crime. This might mean working directly with young