Expressions of interest are invited for the post of Director of the Centre for Dementia (CfD), at the Institute of Mental Health.

The post is available from 1^st March 2023. Please apply to Professor Martin Orrell, IMH Director by 14^th December 2022. Candidates should be current members of the IMH and also the CfD. Potential candidates are invited to discuss the role with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and the current incumbent, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Role profile

The IMH Centre for Dementia was established in 2014. The Centre for Dementia aims to improve the lives of people with dementia and their carers, through high quality, useful research looking at how people with dementia spend their time and what helps them to get quality from life. The Centre is an informal, interdisciplinary research group that offers membership openly within the University to anyone with a research interest in dementia. Membership of the Centre currently numbers around 40. The Centre holds a monthly business meeting and runs a monthly seminar programme. Members of the Centre contribute towards education in the School, including research project supervision for undergraduate and postgraduate students, delivering content to the MSc Mental Health Research & Practice course, and teaching activities on the undergraduate Medicine course. The Centre has a Director (Prof Tom Dening), Deputy Director (Dr Jen Yates) and the seminar programme is co-ordinated by Dr Becky Dowson.

Duties of the post

The Director takes overall responsibility for the running of the Centre, which includes reporting to the IMH Board and contributing to IMH strategy development.

• Organisation and chairing of monthly business meetings.
• Oversight of seminar programme.
• Work with administrator to maintain up-to-date circulation lists for meetings and seminars.
• Oversight of Centre budget from IMH. This is a modest annual amount (currently £250 per annum) for general purpose use.
• Oversight of circulation of relevant information, e.g. conferences etc, among membership.
• The Director could also be invited to join the editorial panel for the Dementia Day to Day blog.

The Centre is not a management entity, so it does not employ staff, who are managed through their existing line management arrangements.

The role is unpaid, but represents a commitment to citizenship, so required time can be negotiated through ADC process.

Person specification

Essential

• Doctoral degree relevant to dementia
• Experience in dementia research, with significant publications, and evidence of interdisciplinary work
• Experience in supervision, e.g. student projects, PGR students
• Teaching experience and skills
• Excellent interpersonal attributes

Desirable

• Track record of holding grants in dementia research
• Experience in organising and chairing meetings
• Evidence of strategic thinking, e.g. involvement in significant projects