The University of Edinburgh
College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
WELCOME FROM THE HEAD OF THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND VETERINARY MEDICINE
I’m delighted that you have shown an interest in a Director of Institute role at the University of Edinburgh and look forward to engaging with you to explore these opportunities. The University is looking for two exceptional individuals to lead two of our research Institutes: the Usher Institute and the Institute of Genetics and Cancer.
The ideal candidate for each role will provide a clear vision for the future of the relevant Institute. They will demonstrate outstanding leadership and strategic skills, an inclusive approach to building a productive research culture and the ability to forge new partnerships nationally and internationally.
The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) is also home to the Institute of Regeneration and Repair and the Roslin Institute. The teams in the five CMVM institutes will work together to build outstanding discovery and translational research programmes designed to answer the major challenges facing humanity, animal and planetary health now and in the future.
The Opportunity
We seek two established, senior research leaders with international reputations who have the leadership skills to drive each Institute’s future strategy in direct alignment with the College and the University of Edinburgh’s research ambitions. The successful candidates will manage collaborative and high-performing teams of principal investigators who are focused on understanding disease, delivering knowledge exchange and translation towards societal impact or clinical benefit for patients. Building synergy across each Institute and the wider organisation in which they sit, the appointed post-holders will accelerate this research work and provide leadership on teaching. They will be members of the College senior leadership team and will report directly to the Head of College.
You will join us at an exciting time in the College’s history as we put plans in place to complete our preeminent medical and life sciences innovation district at the Edinburgh BioQuarter campus. Working across the College, you will have the opportunity to shape the next phase of the college’s development. You will also receive strong support from the University Principal, Provost, Head of College and the wider College and University management teams in taking your plans forward. If you join us, you will become part of an exceptional cadre of academics and professional services staff who have tremendous expertise and commitment.
I look forward to discussing these posts with you further.
Professor David J. Argyle FRSE FRSA FRCVS
Vice-Principal and Head of College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
About the University of Edinburgh | The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine | Edinburgh University Strategy 2030 | The Location
About the University of Edinburgh
At the University of Edinburgh, we’ve been influencing the world for more than 400 years. Each year we take on tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Whatever excites you, whatever your ambition, whatever makes you ‘you’, we know one thing: nothing ordinary comes from this extraordinary place. At Edinburgh, you’ll be in good company, doing good things, for the good of the environment and the world.
Driven by this passion, we’ve affected and empowered every member of our community. We believe this is possible because of a unique mix of three factors:
- Place: the city of Edinburgh is famous for changing the way the world is understood. Its history and reputation rub off on us, every day. It inspires and lifts our expectations of what is possible.
- People: our staff, students, leaders and partners are talented, courageous, engaging and brilliant – and down-to- earth. They value wisdom, laughter, character – and each other.
- Practice: we’re an encouraging space to explore but, at the same time, our research and teaching are ambitious. We, and our global business partners, inspire you to aim high, push frontiers, deliver economic impact and drive sustainability. We’re bold and our results change the world.
Where our place, people and practice meet, this is the University of Edinburgh: we are one of the finest centres of learning in the world. Our vision is to recruit and develop the world’s most promising students and most outstanding staff and be a truly global university that benefits society.
Founded in 1583 by the Town Council of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh was the first civic university in Britain. For more than four centuries, our people and their achievements have rewritten history time and again. They’ve explored space, revolutionised surgery, published era- defining books, paved the way for life-saving medical breakthroughs and introduced to the world many inventions, discoveries and ideas from – penicillin to the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep. Eighteen Nobel Prize winners were educated at, or worked in, Edinburgh including, most recently, Professor Sir Peter Higgs (Physics; 2013).
The University has an annual turnover of more than £1.1 billion, of which more than £300 million is competitive research grant funding. It has over 15,000 staff and 40,000 students and is a founder member of the UK’s Russell group of leading research universities in the UK and a member of the League of European Research Universities.
The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
The University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine is a thriving community united by a shared ambition to turn ideas into impactful health outcomes for humans and animals.
The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine brings people together from all over the world to learn to become research scientists, doctors, and vets or to simply explore new ways of learning. It is a place where scientists have the facilities and equipment they need to explore the most challenging of research questions, where clinical trials explore new treatment options and new ideas get tested every day. We pride ourselves on being a place where ideas can grow, and people are given opportunities to flourish.
Our staff of over 3,330 delivers and supports research and teaching that earned a strong return in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework. Almost 8,500 people are studying with us right now across post and undergraduate programmes in our medical school, vet school and biomedical teaching organisation. More than 3,000 are upskilling on postgraduate taught degrees, a further 1,300 are leading their own postgraduate research and 3,800 fill our lecture theatres and teaching labs as undergraduates.
We are innovative in our approach to teaching at all levels. We are home to the first PhD programme to fully integrate engagement with research. We also have plans for a new health teaching facility that is sustainable in design and enables us to deliver a curriculum that will prepare doctors and scientists to deliver the healthcare of the future. Our vet school intertwines teaching and research in an outstanding setting.
Our strength is created by our people. Our success in research and teaching is enabled by their skill and our outstanding facilities. Together, we are tackling some of the biggest health and wellbeing challenges of our people and planet. Our plans for the future include an innovation estate unrivalled in the UK.
Edinburgh University Strategy 2030
The University of Edinburgh Strategy 2030 is rooted in our values, and led by a distinctive, honest and realistic set of guiding principles to deliver excellence in 2030.
We strive to:
- be a place of transformation and of self-improvement, driven to achieve benefit for individuals, communities, societies and our world;
- be diverse, inclusive and accessible to all;
- be ambitious, bold and act with integrity, always being willing to listen;
- have a strong sense of community, fostering a sustainable environment in which staff, students, alumni and friends are proud to be part of our university;
- attract the world’s best minds to come to study and work with us, while building innovative global partnerships for research, teaching and impact;
- celebrate and strengthen our deep-rooted and distinctive internationalism;
- sustain a deep allegiance and commitment to the interests of the city and region in which we are based, alongside our national and international efforts.
Creating new opportunities for partners, friends, neighbours and supporters to co-create, engage with the world and amplify our impacts is at the forefront of our thinking and activity.
The Location
Edinburgh is a beautiful city that has something to offer everyone. Whether you prefer a quiet restaurant, a lively night out or something in between, you are bound to find it in Edinburgh. Regularly ranked as the “Best Place to Live in the UK”, Edinburgh has many strings to its bow.
Culture and entertainment
Home to the largest arts festival in the world, The Edinburgh International Festival brings the month of August alive in the city where residents are spoilt with first class theatre, music, performance art and comedy all on their doorstep. The abundance of galleries and museums such as The Museum of Scotland, Scottish National Gallery and Scottish National Portrait Gallery to name but a few, means that there is always opportunity to soak up some culture all year round.
For those who wish to feed their bellies as well as their minds, Edinburgh boasts the highest number of Michelin starred restaurants in Scotland and has more restaurants per head of population than any other UK city outside of London. The historic appeal of the Athens of the North has led it to become renowned for its monuments and attractions including the Scott Monument, National Monument on Calton Hill and of course the Edinburgh Castle itself; which dominates the city skyline, no more so than on Hogmanay with the world’s biggest street party and fireworks extravaganza to match!
Transport
Air links – Several airlines fly to the Edinburgh from the principal European cities, and there are very frequent services from London. If booked well in advance, travel to Edinburgh by air can be cheap, particularly from London. For more information check the Edinburgh Airport website.
Bus and tram connections operate 24/7 and with an average journey time of 25-30mins from the city centre.
Rail links – Travelling to Edinburgh from other parts of the UK is generally easy by train and both Waverley and Haymarket train stations are centrally located with support routes provided by the bus and tram networks.
Transport around Edinburgh – Edinburgh has an excellent level of public transport provision compared to many cities in the UK. We have our own Transport and Parking Department here in the University of Edinburgh and they can provide lots of advice on getting around the city, plus details on staff parking facilities on campus.
Edinburgh districts
Edinburgh is a highly sought after place to live. Its beautiful city centre covers the Georgian splendour of the New Town, with its grand terraces, crescents, gardens, and upmarket shopping boutiques and bars, and the narrow closes, winding stairways, and historic charms of the Old Town. Nearby communities such as Morningside, Bruntsfield, Stockbridge and Newington remain in easy reach of the city centre as well provide a local community feel. Explore all of Edinburgh’s districts on our website.
Nurseries and schools
Based at King’s Buildings, The University’s Arcadia Nursery was designed by award-winning architect Malcolm Fraser around the concept of ‘free play’. It provides the perfect environment for children to blossom.
There is however, no obligation to place your child in the University’s nursery. There are many other childcare options in Edinburgh. The City of Edinburgh Council website provides information about childcare across the city. There are two main types of school in the UK, state and independent schools. State schools make up the majority of schools and are funded by the government. There is no fee for your children to attend these schools. Independent schools require a fee for your child to study there, although there are bursaries available.
The school your child can attend is usually dictated by the area in which you live. You cannot apply for a school place until you have an address in the area (this is not the case for fee paying/independent schools). The Council has ‘catchment areas’ for each school and have a duty to provide schooling for your child, but if your first-choice school has no places left, they may have to recommend a school further away. As Edinburgh is our capital city, many of the schools fill up quickly. Some families consider living a commutable distance from the city in order to have a larger choice of schools. East Lothian and West Lothian Councils cover school areas a commutable distance from Edinburgh.