Grants and Learning Manager

Based: Our Head Office is based in Kensington, London SW7, but we have an agile working policy enabling people to work at another UK location up to 4 days/week. Requests for permanent remote working will be considered and we welcome applications from people based in other parts of the UK.

Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week. Requests for part-time (0.8FTE minimum) or flexible working will be considered.

Contract: Fixed term contract to the end of December 2027.

About Us: The British Science Association (BSA) was founded in 1831 and is a registered charity. We are creating a future where science is more relevant, representative, and connected to society. We have ambitious goals to put people at the heart of science.

About the role: We are seeking to appoint someone on a fixed term contract to the end of December 2027, to join our Grants Team in delivering The Ideas Fund, an exciting programme which looks to connect communities with researchers in order to develop and try out ideas related to mental wellbeing. The Fund is delivered in four areas of the UK – Oldham, Hull, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and North West Northern Ireland, although this role can be remote, based anywhere in the UK.

With support from the Head of Grants, we expect that you will have lead responsibility for grant management across these areas, building strong relationships with our Development Co-ordinators and contributing to the successful delivery of the overall programme. You will oversee the support for grant holders to learn from what is working and feed this learning into our overall approach with the Fund, as well as sharing insights externally. It’s an exciting time for the Fund as we work to build partnerships with others who are interested in community-led approaches to working with research and researchers.

You will work with our existing Grants & Learning Manager to ensure that our due diligence and grant reporting requirements are met, responding flexibly and creatively to issues that arise. Importantly, you will consistently focus on how our learning can influence long term change in funding and research practice.

As noted in the job description, we also expect this role to include supporting the Head of Grants with developing the BSA’s strategy around future grants programmes. This may include working across funding programmes other than The Ideas Fund as they are developed and funding secured.

Key responsibilities:

• Work with the Head of Grants and our existing Grants and Learning Manager to continue to deliver an innovative programme that constantly evolves based on what we learn.
• Ensure excellent grant-making using relational, flexible and participatory approaches with high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Champion innovation in supporting community/researcher collaboration, community-led research, systems change and grant making across relevant sectors including:
• Developing and delivering strategies for sharing learning, practice and ideas with a broad range of stakeholders through a range of approaches.
• Representing the British Science Association at external events to share innovation and learning.
• Developing and delivering events and/or content to showcase practice and share learning with a broad range of stakeholders using a range of approaches.
• Support the implementation of our learning and evaluation strategies and processes, reviewing and refining as needed.
• Manage relationships and/or contracts with learning partners where appropriate.
• Oversee the smooth delivery of the programme, including budget management, payment processing, due diligence activity etc.
• Support local Development Co-ordinators to:
• Work with grant holders, collaborating researchers and project partners to overcome challenges they might face in delivering their projects.
• Collate and share local learning as part of wider learning strategies.
• Develop and manage a small pipeline of discretionary grants to add value to the portfolio and/or make systemic impact at local or national level, if necessary.
• Develop bespoke application and grant management and learning processes as appropriate.
• Engage a network of key existing stakeholders, and build further external relationships, to ensure successful delivery of the programme.
• Support the Head of Grants with developing the BSA’s strategy around future grants programmes.
• In addition, the post-holder will be expected to support colleagues across the organisation, especially at busy times or on specific areas of expertise.
• Other duties as reasonably required by the line manager.

About you:

The Grants & Learning Manager role would suit someone who has strong stakeholder management skills and experience in curating and sharing learning. Good attention to detail, experience of grant-making, and an understanding of the benefits and risks involved in delivering innovative grant-making approaches would all be beneficial. The role would suit someone who is comfortable using their judgement and working with an evolving programme, and who can confidently communicate with a variety of stakeholders. We are particularly interested to hear from people who have experience in supporting and influencing wider systems change.

Your experience in terms of the person specification could come from either a personal or professional background. You may not have experience of everything listed in the person specification, but will be open to challenging yourself and developing in the role.

The closing date for applications is midnight on Sunday 5th July 2026. As part of the British Science Association’s commitment to being a Disability Confident employer, all disabled applicants who meet the ‘essential criteria’ for this vacancy will be offered an interview under our guaranteed interview scheme.