Institute Director, Sustainable Consumption Institute

Applications are invited from senior academic members (normally professorial Band D) of the Faculty of Humanities for the post of Institute Director for the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), which is to be filled from 1 August 2025 for a period of 3 years.

The Director of a Research Institute led out of the Faculty of Humanities (HUMs) reports to the relevant Head(s) of School, the Faculty Vice-Dean (Research), and the University of Manchester Research Institute (UMRI). The post holder will ensure the strategic development and management of the Research Institute and maintain a programme of activities against KPI targets and key performance measures. The post carries a workload adjustment of 40%-60%. The successful applicant will continue to hold their substantive post, to which they will revert on a full-time basis following their period as Institute Director.

The research agenda of the Sustainable Consumption Institute for 2025-29 is organised around the core question of ‘How does continual social change shape the pursuit of sustainability?’ It focuses on the way that ongoing disruptive transformations are the background within which efforts to pursue sustainability need to be understood. Key disruptive transformations encompass changes in business practices, widening inequalities, geopolitical conflicts, pandemics, everyday practices, and social movement innovations. Alongside these dynamics, impacts of multiple ecological crises are accelerating, producing their own social disruptions. Addressing sustainability in this way provides the SCI with a distinct approach to sustainability as a plural, complex, contested, and inevitably problematic process.

This research is focused through three, intertwined, thematic areas: governing sustainability in a turbulent world; sustainable provisioning in turbulent times; and sustainabilities, turbulence, and everyday life. Each deploys and builds on particular aspects of SCI expertise and provides a basis for ongoing innovation in sustainability research and potential for wide-ranging social impacts.

The person specification and details of the duties and responsibilities attached to the post can be found here.

Colleagues with an interest in the post should discuss this with their Head of Department prior to applying. Colleagues are also invited to discuss this post informally with Professor Maggie B. Gale, Vice Dean (Research), Faculty of Humanities.

Applications should consist of a brief curriculum vitae and a supporting letter demonstrating how you would undertake the duties and responsibilities attached to this post and your ideas for further development of the role.

Applications should be submitted to:

Gillian Whitworth
Faculty of Humanities Research and Business Engagement Services
Email: gillian.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk 

The closing date for applications is midnight on Monday, 13 January 2025

Interviews will take place on 4 February 2025.

Director of the Centre for Digital Trust and Society 

Applications are invited from academic members of staff for the post of Director of the Centre for Digital Trust and Society (CDTS), which will be filled from 1 July 2025 or as soon as possible after that date.

The role is strategically important for both the University and the Faculty of Humanities. The appointed Director will lead and develop the Centre and also act as the University lead for research on Digital Trust and Security (DTS) within the Digital Futures platform, a highly interdisciplinary network that operates across the whole range of the University’s digital research. The role involves working closely with the University’s Vice-President for Research, the Digital Futures Management Board and the Head of the School of Social Sciences.

The post is for a period of three years in the first instance and carries a 0.5 workload adjustment.

Read the person specification and details of the duties and responsibilities attached to the post.

Colleagues with an interest in this post are invited to discuss this informally with the current CDTS Director, Professor Nick Lord.

Applications are invited in the form of a brief curriculum vitae plus a supporting letter demonstrating how you meet the person specification and how you would undertake the duties and responsibilities attached to the post.

Applications should be submitted to:

• Louise McMahon
  Faculty of Humanities Research and Business Engagement Services
  Email: louise.mcmahon@manchester.ac.uk 

The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday, 21 February 2025.