CyberFocus Place Based Impact Acceleration Account (PBIAA) Project Manager

We are looking for a dynamic manager to lead and build a diverse team to deliver an exciting £5M project to radically grow the North West Cyber Ecosystem. CyberFocus is a unique project led by Lancaster University, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

(EPSRC) to work with partner universities across the North West to forge trusted interconnections that instil confidence in research-led impact partnerships to propel national prosperity and protection. 

The CyberFocus Project Manager will work in collaboration with the project PI to oversee all aspects of the project’s activity. This role involves developing and delivering the core innovation programme, managing our flexible partnership, engagement and impact funds, working with our partner universities, developing relationships with external partners - specifically our civic partners, promoting activities and working with our funder.

Key Responsibilities

Manage the overall CyberFocus activity and fundsDevelop and maintain relationships with all key project and external partnersPromote and develop project activities and initiativesDevelop and deliver the projects core innovation discovery programme.Reporting on project progress and financial performance

 Key Requirements:

Experience in developing diverse, inclusive relationships and collaborative partnerships Experience of managing, large, complex projects or programmes Understanding of the innovation process and experience of developing, innovation programmes Understanding of cyber security and innovation in cyber securityAn ability to build and lead inclusive and diverse teamsExcellent communication and engagement skills.

You will be expected to build relationships right across the CyberFocus partnership. There is real scope to create new and innovative mechanisms to support knowledge exchange collaborations and impact pathways aligned to cyber security and broader security and protection sciences.

Role Details

Salary:                        8P

Closing Date:               11 May 2025

Interviews:                   TBC

Duration:                      Fixed term until 16th March 2029

If you are interested in understanding more about this exciting challenge please contact Prof Daniel Prince at cyberfocus@lancaster.ac.uk with any questions or to informally discussion this role. 

We warmly welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of their age, religion, gender identity or expression, race, disability or sexual orientation, and are committed to promoting diversity, and equality of opportunity. As a truly global and inclusive university, it is no surprise that Lancaster University is committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive and fulfil their potential. Students from over one hundred countries make up our diverse campus and over half of our staff come from outside of the UK. Lancaster is an open and welcoming community that values equality and diversity. Our promotion of global values ensures Lancaster is a welcoming environment for all students and staff.

We are proactive in engagement with our staff to help us to understand the lived experiences of our university community and to understand how we are doing in creating a fairer and more inclusive University. Our multi-faith Chaplaincy Centre is a welcoming place for people of all faiths and none. It includes facilities for the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam and Jewish faiths and also a Muslim Prayer Room.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups.

We will also encourage flexible and elements of remote working given the nature of the roles, learning from our experience during the pandemic in ensuring the role holder is well supported in doing so. We do expect there to be travel across the North West in building relationships and undertaking project activity with all CyberFocus partners.

Further Details

About CyberFocus

The CyberFocus project is led by Lancaster in partnership with the universities of Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Cumbria, Central Lancashire and Manchester Metropolitan University. Three of the partners (Lancaster, Manchester and Liverpool) are National Centre for Cyber Security (NCSC) recognised Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research. 

It is a critical time for NW with the arrival of GCHQ in Manchester and the National Cyber Force (NCF) in Lancashire which creates unprecedented opportunity to maximise the socio-economic potential of a high growth, innovative sector central to the UKs response to increasing geopolitical uncertainty. CyberFocus will draw on these established partnerships to develop a sustained innovation ecosystem across the North West Cyber Corridor and realise the regional potential for Cyber Socio-Economic prosperity.

This follows Lancaster University’s recent once-in-a-generation £19M investment into Security and Protection Sciences (SPS) – an initiative that will also see Lancaster recruit 33 new cross-disciplinary academics, plus 15 professor in practice roles as well as 10 support staff. It also comes after Lancaster’s move to set up a new Digital Security Hub in Manchester with a consortium of leading cyber security specialists to help foster innovation and growth in the region and wider UK’s digital and cyber security sectors.

About Lancaster University

The growing reputation of Lancaster is reflected by high rankings year-on-year in three of the UK's major university league tables –The Complete University Guide 2025 (10th), The Guardian University Guide 2025 (11th), and The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 (12th). Lancaster is a truly international University with four overseas teaching partnerships (in Ghana, Germany, Malaysia and China) and a new joint branch campus planned in Bandung, Indonesia. Lancaster is ranked 141st out of more than 1,500 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2025.

The 2024 Knowledge Exchange Framework, which measures how well universities perform in areas from business support to local regeneration, recognised Lancaster among the top 20% of English institutions for Local Growth and Regeneration, Working with Businesses and Working with the Public and Third Sector. The University also placed in the top 40% for Research Partnerships and IP and Commercialisation. In the Research Excellence Framework 2021, 91% of Lancaster's research has been independently rated as 'internationally excellent' or 'world leading' with 46% rated in the highest category of 4*.

The Lancaster Campus is a 560-acre site, which is self-contained yet well connected. The campus is a community of nine colleges and has an array of facilities including banks, shops, cafes, pre-school and health services. Three miles or a ten minute bus ride away is the city of Lancaster which offers opportunities to shop, eat and drink at a variety cafes and restaurants, engage with arts and culture at one of the theatres or museums and visit some of the historical landmarks including the 1000 year old castle.

We offer relocation allowances for staff (grade six and above) who have to move to join us and have engaged the services of a relocation partner (Sterling Lexicon) to assist with international relocations.

To find out more about the University please visit www.lancaster.ac.uk

Closing Date: 18 May 2025

Department: Professional/Management

Salary: £48,148 to £55,755 (Full time, indefinite with end date)