Role: Research Futures Community Coordinator
Grade and Salary: Grade 7 (£37,694 - £47,389)
FTE and working pattern: Full-time, 35 hours weekly based at Edinburgh Campus
Holiday Entitlement: 33 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)
Purpose of Role
You will build a thriving, welcoming community for our Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) across our global campuses. We take an enhancement-led approach to experience, built on partnership and collaboration with our PGR and ECR community. This role supports the University’s ambition for an exceptional student experience as part of Strategy 2035, by strengthening belonging, access to support, and consistency across campuses.
You will create regular opportunities for people to connect, share experiences, and feel part of something bigger than their project. You will help deliver an integrated, holistic PGR/ECR experience by coordinating community activity and communications across Schools, services, and campuses.
Your key priorities are simple and important:
• Belonging and community, so researchers feel connected and supported.
• Equity of experience across campuses and Schools.
• Awareness and uptake of support, so people can find help quickly and use it well.
You will run a consistent programme of events and communications that supports the researcher journey from arrival to next steps. You will also collaborate with Marketing, Recruitment, Admissions and Communications on external-facing engagement for both recruitment and reputation. Sometimes you will help deliver external events. Sometimes you will enable them by bringing the right voices, stories, and insight.
Key Duties & Responsibilities
Researcher Community & Belonging
Plan and deliver a year-round programme of community activity for PGRs and ECRs, including events, networks, online spaces and campaigns.
Ensure clear and accessible routes into participation, including onboarding touchpoints and “what’s on / how to get involved” information.
Strengthen belonging, peer support and engagement through connection-focused initiatives (e.g. buddy schemes, peer groups, communities of practice).
Enable researchers to build networks, share experiences and develop meaningful connections across Schools, disciplines and campuses.
Identify barriers to engagement and implement practical solutions to improve participation, accessibility and reach.
Actively promote inclusive participation from underrepresented and marginalised groups, and design activity that addresses structural and cultural barriers (e.g. care experienced researchers, carers, disabled researchers, and international researchers)
Researcher Experience & Engagement
Map key stages of the researcher journey and coordinate targeted touch points that improve awareness, engagement and access to support.
Work with colleagues across the University to ensure a consistent, equitable, and accessible experience for researchers.
Coordinate activity that supports researchers through key transitions and milestones.
Align activity across Schools and services to reduce duplication and improve coordination of support.
Researcher Insight
Put in place accessible, low barrier mechanisms to gather researcher feedback (e.g. pulse surveys, focus groups, representative channels, including PRES where relevant).
Create effective ways to hear and act on the researcher voice, enabling co-design and co-creation of community activity, and clearly demonstrating how feedback has informed decisions and improvements.
Use feedback and data to inform priorities and improve researcher experience activity.
Report on engagement and impact using clear, practical measures.
Community Communications & External Engagement
Work with Marketing, Communications and Student Recruitment to promote researcher opportunities, activity and support.
Develop and deliver clear communications across appropriate channels (e.g. email, web, Teams, social).
Create and share content that platforms researcher voices and lived-experience (e.g. case studies, stories, testimonials).
Contribute to applicant-facing activity (e.g. webinars, events, Q&As) where needed.
Essential & Desirable Criteria
Essential
Proven experience building and sustaining networks (in higher education, research, training, membership, or similar settings).
Strong event and programme delivery skills, including planning, coordination, and follow-through.
Excellent communication skills: you write clearly, speak confidently, and tailor messages to different audiences.
A people-first mindset: you build trust, hold inclusive spaces and enable people to connect.
Good judgement and diplomacy, especially when working with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Practical digital skills, including common platforms (Microsoft 365 tools, online events tools, web/content updates).
Ability to use insight and data to improve activity and demonstrate impact.
A commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, with experience applying inclusive approaches in practice.
Strong organisation skills: you manage deadlines, details, and multiple workstreams.
Ability to work collaboratively across teams to deliver joined-up solutions
Understanding of the PGR/ECR context, including common pressures, motivations, and development needs.
Desirable
Experience working directly with PGRs, ECRs, or researcher development programmes.
Skills in facilitation (workshops, peer learning, community conversations).
Experience running ambassador/champion schemes or volunteer programmes.
Content skills: basic design, video/audio editing, or social media planning.
Experience with CRM or event platforms (e.g., Eventbrite or similar) and mailing lists.
Knowledge of research culture, research integrity, open research, or career development landscapes.
Confidence working with evaluation methods, such as simple logic models, outcome measures, or user journey mapping.
Experience supporting hybrid communities across multiple sites and time zones.
How to Apply
Applications can be submitted up to 23:55 (UK time) on the 2nd of August 2026.
Please submit via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment system (1) Cover letter describing your interest and suitability for the post; (2) Full CV.
We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g., part-time working and job share options.
Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.
Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .
Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.
About the Team
The Research Engagement Directorate (RED) provides high quality support for the Heriot Watt research community across three divisions: Research and Researcher Development, Legal, and Policy, Strategy and Impact. Working closely with the Business and Enterprise Directorate, RED works to deliver the Excelling in Research and Enterprise theme of Strategy 2025 and to shape the direction of Strategy 2035.
As a result of a recent restructuring, the Research and Researcher Development division has a renewed focus and extended remit with two teams who together support researchers from postgraduate to professorial level in an integrated way:
The Research Futures Hub is being established within the Research and Researcher Development Division, and it incorporates a Graduate School to support an equitable and high-quality experience for the global community of postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers.
The Research Development team provides support for pre-award research proposal development, working in partnership across Schools to advise and target significant funding opportunities and enhance researchers’ skills and experience to succeed in attracting research grant funding. The team works at pace, in response to strict funder deadlines.
Following the restructuring, a vacancy has arisen for a Research Futures Community Coordinator that will help establish and sustain a vibrant, supportive and inclusive environment for PGRs and ECRs through the Research Futures Hub and Graduate School, with early career researcher experience at its core. The postholder will deliver an engaging programme of activities and communications that builds connection, belonging and peer support, and will collaborate with Marketing and Student Recruitment colleagues to support external-facing engagement. This will include applicant-focused activity that improves the prospective PGR experience and reputation-focused content that showcases research culture, community and researcher success.
About Heriot-Watt University
At Heriot-Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.
Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.
