Business Development Officer

Our Fundraising and Development Office is critical to the overall intellectual, financial and reputational success of the Institute. We have a vacancy for a Business Development Officer with the responsibility for driving the Institute’s business development and new funding opportunities to achieve the financial growth required for diversification of funding. The Business Development Officer, with the support of a Grants Officer, will oversee the research and knowledge funding proposals and will be the main point of contact between funders and the Institute prior to bids being accepted. They will also raise awareness of potential funding opportunities for the development of IDS work. The ability to work flexibly, to tight deadlines, to be able to adapt to an ever-changing environment and to handle information and resolve issues in a methodical, intelligent, and accurate manner are essential.

We are looking for someone who has excellent skills in building strong internal and external relationships, together with good written and verbal communication skills. You should also have a proven track record in developing grant proposals and securing high value grants preferably in international development. We can offer a friendly and supportive working environment, excellent benefits and flexible working including hybrid / part remote working from candidates able to work 2 to 3 days per week in the IDS building.

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) delivers world-class research, learning and teaching that transforms the knowledge, action and leadership needed for more equitable and sustainable development globally.

The Business Development Officer (BDO) post will be situated in the Fundraising and Development Office (FDO), and will report to the Head of Fundraising and Development HoFDO), while also working closely with the Partnerships Office, Alumni Relations Office as well as the Institute’s Research Clusters, Engagement Hubs, Communications and Engagement Unit, Knowledge, Impact and Policy Unit, Finance and the Directorate to develop a strategic and powerful approach to fundraising and development. As such, the Office is critical to the overall intellectual, financial and reputational success of the Institute.

IDS’ 2020-2025 strategy sets out how we will build on our current strengths and approaches to address a refreshed set of critical impact areas, pursue a set of strategic priorities to enhance the internationalization of our work, and commit to new actions to align our everyday operations more strongly with our vision and values.

The FDO leads a number of critical functions for the Institute, including:

1. Building donor relationships 2. Fundraising and horizon scanning 3. Attracting high net worth private philanthropy and foundations 4. Supporting large and cross-cutting bids and proactive thinking 5. Building systems 6. Managing frameworks and consultancies 7. Facilitating partnerships management 8. Engaging alumni

The Position

The BDO acts as the interface between IDS and its main funding partners. This entails maintaining clarity on who the key funders and potential funders are, maintaining good relationships with key funder contacts; keeping abreast of donor priorities, requirements and expectations; seeking out new funding partners and opportunities; and advising on how best IDS can engage with particular donors and opportunities and supporting responses to them. The BDO with the Head of FDO is responsible for supporting, and facilitating the efforts of the Director of Research, the Research Clusters and project support Hubs in delivering the strategy of the Institute in relation to its research and teaching objectives and income generation. The Development Office is the first point of contact for potential contractors, collaborators and partners in instigating new work with IDS, developing proposals and seeking information on the Institute and its activities. The BDO oversees these relationships, ensuring appropriate dissemination of opportunities and managing any substantive agreement with guidance from the Contracts and Compliance Manager and in liaison with the Partnerships and Fundraising Officer. The BDO supports the development of new work in the Institute through ensuring linkages across the Institute.

This work requires an experienced professional with outstanding communication and organising skills, who will work with others across the Institute to develop, support and implement an effective business development plan in relation to development research. The BDO will work closely with the Head of Fundraising and Development Office to deliver the IDS’ ‘Transforming Knowledge, Transforming Lives’ strategy through supporting the development of the Institute’s intellectual agenda and ensuring the financial health of the Institute. The role of the BDO is to act as a focal point for knowledge of the market for development research and information and to support engagements with it through coordination of activities, internal and external communication and administrative support.

S/He should have a demonstrated commitment to and understanding of working in research development office and collaboration with others, including excellent written, digital and oral communication skills.

Specific responsibilities will include:

1. Scanning funding opportunities • keeping abreast with the programmes and needs of key clients/potential clients’ requirements through meetings and visits, internet searches, reports and other media and explaining these clearly to colleagues. This also includes: o scanning for new opportunities and communicating these effectively across the Institute. o acquiring intelligence and keeping ahead of key funder procurement processes, as well as overseeing consortium development processes. o working with individual researchers/Clusters and the Research and Teaching Forum to identify and explore new research programmes prior to the preparation of specific proposals. • Building a repository for information on consultants and organisations approaching IDS and identifying appropriate uses for this information. This also includes building and maintaining relationships with relevant contact officers in key donor agencies. • Maintaining awareness of significant opportunities for the development of IDS work. This includes working with the HoFDO to develop, implement and communicate strategy for fundraising within IDS in line with the institutional strategy and in support of Cluster strategies. • Working with groups/Clusters to outline funding strategies for new initiatives. This includes working with researchers, particularly those that are new, to identify appropriate sources of funding for their research proposals and advise them on approaches.

2. Supporting proposal preparation • Overseeing of research and major tender proposals in development within IDS to ensure quality standards and deadlines are met. For large competitions, work with lead researcher to manage proposal development process, including meetings/workshops with partners, cross institute coordination, donor liaison, proposal drafting as required. • Understanding and ensuring adherence to guidelines for proposal formats and online application systems. • Coordinating and supporting connections and acting as catalyst for work between different Clusters and Hubs in the development of projects – ensuring good information flow between the different Hubs and the Clusters including ensuring that the robust financial plans are in line with the Institute’s financial policies, IDS’ policies and standard practice. • Building capacity for proposal preparation and development, coaching, and advising Clusters on approaches, partners, donor expectations, proposal preparation process are required. • Working closely with the Contracts and Compliance Manager to ensure they can discharge their responsibility for robust contracting arrangements. • Work with Hubs and Finance to collate, synthesise and present institutional information including profile, track record, personnel/financial statistics, supporting documentation and certification. • Work with Hubs and Finance to provide boilerplate/standard text inputs to proposals on IDS processes and aspects of management and risk. • Supervising and supporting the Grants Coordinator in formatting, preparation and timely despatch of normal proposals and tenders.

3. Main point of contact between funders and the Institute prior to bids being accepted • Overall coordination and management of all frameworks IDS is part of, including: o Coordination and management of International Multi-Disciplinary Programme (IMDP) (soon to be IMDF) Framework, including providing support to the business development and project management efforts under it, i.e. monitoring FCDO’s TEAMS site for opportunities and communicating these both internally and external (to already selected partners) within a specific set time; liaising and collaborating with colleagues to set up core business processes related to the IMDF Framework, have the day-to-day IMDF Framework management responsibility and support the IMDF Lot Leads/Project Support Officers with whom you will be the key focal point for the Framework with FCDO and our Lot partners. o Receive, disseminate and coordinate call down notifications/responses, lead on coordination of bidding, award analysis, management of Lot Partnerships, and coordination of a cross-functional IMDF management team. Working with compliance and finance colleagues you will ensure IMDF value for money across all call down contracts and working with post award colleagues lead on reporting of over-arching IMDF implementation. o Support and contribute towards bid writing (specifically for IMDF framework which are extremely demanding and time intensive). • Monitor and record IMDF activity for reporting purposes (reporting to be done by Contracts and Compliance Manager).

4. Ensuring compliance of research ethics process • Ensuring IDS’s ethical review is followed and that the research work is ethically based and meets all relevant ethical criteria. • Liaise with and flag all problematic ethical areas to the Research Ethics Convenor.

5. Working closely with the Head of Fundraising and Development Office and colleagues to provide an effective and efficient service in support of fundraising and development including: • Supporting the Head of FDO in planning and implementing for the emerging fundraising and project development priorities for 2020-2025 in fundraising efforts • Trouble shoot and spread good practice, identifying critical issues arising from the Development Office’s work that need to be addressed through changes in policy or practice, and areas of good practice to be disseminated • Helping to implement other aspects of the wider private philanthropy prospect research including helping to map new funding opportunities • Collaborating with the HoFD and the Director of Finance to produce accurate financial pipeline report for the Resources and Audit Committee (of the Board) • Supporting systems improvements, building capacity, identifying good practice and desirable changes in policy or practice relating to grants management • Tracking the proposal process and pipeline, monitoring submission success rates, providing management information for audiences including the Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) and Board • Line management of the Grants Coordinator, overseeing their work and development

Other tasks commensurate with the level of the post.