The Brigstow Institute is advertising for a new director to take up the role from 1st August 2022. The Director will provide strong intellectual, creative and organisational leadership for Brigstow, and engage with a range of academic, creative and community partners.

The role is open to University of Bristol academics.
Closing date is 29th September.

The role:

The Brigstow Institute brings people together to undertake new experimental inter-disciplinary and co-produced research projects and partnerships exploring what it means to live well in the 21st century. Brigstow mobilises, connects and resources communities of curious minds seeking to re-imagine self and society through making creative interventions that they can showcase to the world.

As Director, you will understand that in exploring what it means to be human, both lived knowledge and other expertise are valued alongside academic knowledge that is drawn from a range of radically different disciplinary perspectives. The research projects we fund have co-production at their heart: they involve those outside the university (creatives, charities, businesses) as core members of research teams, co-designing and co-producing the research together and you will continue to build these relationships and trust – we support our diverse research teams to work equitably, learning from each other and valuing the fact that different knowledge lies in each of us.

Brigstow began in the autumn 2015. Since then we have supported over 160 new engaged research partnerships and projects involving university researchers 399 times from across all six faculties (covering 24 out of a total of 28 schools) and Professional Services, and working 303 times with diverse partners from the local communities, creative industries, the third sector and commercial enterprises. Of the 78 experimental partnerships that have been supported, all have involved the creative industries in some way and continuing to engage this sector, both in terms of outputs and more crucially, the research process, will continue to be a strategically important area for Brigstow in the future. We have run over 100 engaged and interactive events attracting over 2500 people, have supported and been involved in research projects and partnerships that led to ~£12M successful funding applications, and have grown an active Brigstow ‘family’ of over 600 consisting of both university and creative/community partners.

Tim Cole, the existing Brigstow Director, says “leading Brigstow for the past few years has been the best role that I’ve had during my twenty-five years as an academic. It offers not only an insight into the variety of research undertaken within and beyond the university, but also the chance to enable new research partnerships to develop and flourish.”

What will you be doing?

As Brigstow Director you will provide strong intellectual, creative and organisational leadership, with the ability and intellectual capacity to address the broad range of issues that are critical to building the Institute’s success, as well as engage with a range of academic, creative and community partners.

You will have a critical role at Brigstow – as well as leading the Institute and working closely with the Brigstow team, you will build on the successes so far, coming up with creative and engaging ways to build Brigstow’s diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary and co-produced research projects and activities, and co-create a vision for Brigstow for the next 3-5 years.

You should apply if:

You have experience of, and genuine commitment to, interdisciplinary working and the use of co-produced and creative approaches during the research process; you are capable of inspiring the confidence of internal and external stakeholders (at all stages of their career and across all disciplines) with an open and collaborative approach; you are able to articulate a clear vision for the Institute and rally the support of the community (across the University and beyond) to deliver it; and have both a “can do”, creative and empathetic approach which will inspire and enthuse members of the Institute and its community while understanding its challenges and motivations.

Click here for full job description and application process.