Job Description
CMVM / Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies / The Roslin Institute
Full-time: 35 hours per week
Open-ended (permanent)
The Opportunity: Director of the Roslin Institute
We have an ambitious strategic vision for the future, and this role provides an excellent platform to influence across the School, College, University and the wider research sector.
The Roslin Institute is a world-leading centre of animal bioscience research, supported strategically by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with a vibrant postgraduate research programme and ca. 65 Group Leaders and Tenure-Track Fellows across eight research divisions. Roslin sits within the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies; one of the world’s leading vet schools (ranking 5 th in QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024).
The University of Edinburgh is one of the leading research-led academic institutions in the world, offering an exciting, positive, creative and rewarding place to work. The University is consistently ranked in the world’s top 50 Universities, placed 27 th in the most recent QS rankings.
The University is looking for an exceptional individual to work with our Principal Investigators, professional services staff and technical support teams to deliver a clear and exciting vision for the future of the Institute towards the wider School research strategy. Along with outstanding leadership and strategic skills, the successful candidate will demonstrate an inclusive approach to enhancing a productive research culture and the ability to forge new partnerships nationally and internationally. Building synergy across the Institute, School and the wider College, the successful candidate will accelerate the Institute’s discovery and translational research and provide leadership on teaching.
The job description contains information about the qualities we seek in our next Director of the Roslin institute and Deputy Head of School for Research and Innovation, as well as background information about the Institute, School, College and University.
Further details are available in the Roslin Director Information Pack (opens new browser tab).
This is a senior appointment by the University of Edinburgh and, as such, a competitive salary will be offered and will be negotiable depending on experience.
Your Skills And Attributes For Success
- Have an excellent research career with international peer recognition in an area of bioscience of relevance to the Institute;
- Be able to demonstrate vision and experience in the leadership of a science-driven organisation and the ability to think and operate strategically;
- Be a motivating, inclusive and effective leader, able to work with and enthuse a diverse range of staff, contributing to further development of the Institute
- Be able to manage and direct a sustainable, diverse research operation with significant numbers of staff, initially across a multi-location environment;
- Be committed to knowledge transfer and innovation, with an ability to translate research at the Institute into commercial opportunities; Ability to articulate policy to individuals, groups and the media and to develop effective partnerships.
Click to view a copy of the full job description (opens new browser tab)
Application Information
Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:
- Full Academic CV
- Cover letter outlining your interests in and vision for the role and your contributions to supporting the wider research ecosystem.
As a valued member of our team you can expect:
- A competitive salary
- An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
- To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community
- Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, competitive pension schemes, staff discounts, and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits
Championing equality, diversity and inclusion
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our
right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)
The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Skilled Worker Visa.
Key dates to note
The closing date for applications is:
Thursday 28 th August 2025
Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.
Interviews will be held:
Monday 10 th November 2025.
Shortlisted candidates will be expected to be present in Edinburgh
w/c 3 rd November 2025 for an informal visit to the Institute and to deliver a presentation to staff.
About Us
As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
About The Roslin Institute
The Roslin Institute is a world-leading centre for animal bioscience research, supported strategically by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Institute has a vibrant programme of postgraduate research (c.180 PhDs hosted in the building at the time of writing) and is supported by ~65 Group Leaders and Career-Track Fellows organised across eight basic research divisions and a clinical division focused on comparative biomedicine. Since joining the University in 2008, the Institute has more than doubled in size.
Over £380M has been invested in physical infrastructure at Easter Bush since 2008, including the National Avian Research Facility (NARF), Roslin Innovation Centre (linking academia and industry) and a major partnership with the Agri-Tech Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL), to fund the construction of a £25M Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility. As an Innovation campus, we serve as a key national hub for the Agri-Tech, Aquaculture and Animal Bioscience industries (3As) with RIC providing laboratory and office space for entities in the 3A sector. The Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics & Health was primed by significant investment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Government departments providing Overseas Aid. Ongoing partnership between the University and BBSRC to provide strategic funding to the Institute has been vital to this success. Annual Institute income exceeds £30M, around 30% of which is derived from the BBSRC via strategic and competitive responsive mode funding.
The Roslin Institute, the wider Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), made a joint submission to the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) . This submission to Unit of Assessment 6 (Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science) was ranked first in the UK. The judgement, based on the quality and breadth of research, maintains the Institute, School and SRUC’s position as the strongest provider in these subject areas. The institutions’ research environment was classified to be 100% world leading or internationally excellent. Our joint submission with SRUC was also assessed as being 100% world leading or international excellent in terms of the impact its research work has on wider society. The REF assessment of the quality of the research being undertaken at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the impact it has in society.
Our focus on achieving sustainable agriculture, controlling diseases and enhancing health is key to deliver the BBSRC’s Strategic Delivery Plan 2022-2025 contributing to the six objectives, in particular - enhancing UK leadership in transformative technologies, and delivering bio-based solutions in sustainable agriculture and food. The Institute is ideally placed to deliver research for Official Development Assistance (ODA), in particular by unlocking the genetic potential of farmed animals and dissecting genotype-by-environment interactions to sustainably improve animal productivity in low- and middle-income countries.
The Research Of The Institute Is Focused Into Two Linked Institute Strategic Programmes (ISPs) With a Clear Outward-facing Narrative And In Line With BBSRC Objectives
- ISP1: Genes & Traits for Healthy Animals
- ISP2: Prevention & Control of Infectious Diseases
In addition, the Institute capitalises on its position within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to support a fourth strand in Comparative Biomedicine.
The research of the Institute is focused on meeting the following key challenges:
- Sustainable animal production
- Alleviating hunger, malnutrition and poverty
- Mitigating the negative impacts of animal agriculture
- Reducing the burden of animal diseases
- Reducing zoonoses and preparing for pandemics
- Combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- Animal models of human disease
- Enhancing the health and welfare of farmed animals
- Transforming our understanding of the building blocks of life
Alongside Meeting These Challenges, We
- Provide expertise to advise academia, industry, government and policy makers to aid the translation of basic research into improved farming practices and agriculture-related businesses.
- Provide postgraduate training to address the skill shortages in the animal sciences sector, especially in the areas of in vivo biology, quantitative genetics, computational biology and informatics.
- Translate discoveries into veterinary clinical practice, and translation of veterinary clinical observations into basic science discoveries.
The delivery of these outcomes is expedited by extensive interactions with companies in the Livestock and Pharma sectors, from Small & Medium Enterprises to large multi-nationals, including in the form of ongoing platform agreements with major animal breeding and pharmaceutical companies. The Institute Director is part of the Board for the Roslin Innovation Centre, located in the Charnock Bradley Building beside the Institute – this provides a variety of companies in the Agri-tech, Aquaculture and One Health space in order to foster the collaborative eco-system for research and innovation.
The Institute currently holds an Athena SWAN Gold award in recognition of its ongoing support and commitment for the advancement of women in science, it undertakes a broad range of initiatives to support equality and diversity.
The mission and vision of the Institute align closely with the BBSRC’s strategy for its sponsored Institutes .
