NICRE Rural Innovation Associate

Salary: £36,636 to £38,784 with progression to £46,049 per annum.

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 19 July 2026.

Do you enjoy working collaboratively with diverse groups to find solutions that help rural places thrive? Are you energised by a fast‑paced team environment: working flexibly across a wide variety of topics? Are you organised and detail‑oriented, with a track record of turning plans into tangible outcomes for customers and communities? The National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) is a national research and innovation centre working with a unique network of university, business, policy and rural community partners across the UK.

NICRE brings together research, practical innovation and stakeholder engagement to support thriving rural economies and unlock the potential of rural enterprise.

NICRE is looking to appoint an enthusiastic and dedicated Rural Innovation Associate. Your main area of responsibility will be to facilitate activity for a variety of NICRE innovation projects in the North East of England and around the UK. Your role will entail stimulating and delivering a portfolio of innovative pilot demonstration and consultancy projects as well as carrying out associated applied/action research, evaluation and evidence gathering.

Part of your role will be to liaise with partners to complete existing projects and to generate ideas for, develop, seek funding for and take forward new innovation projects. You will also provide support for the development of business cases for funding and associated partnerships in support of the regional and national work of NICRE.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended working.

This post is full time, offered on a fixed‑term contract to 31 July 2027. Interviews will be held on 29 and 30 July 2026.

For informal enquiries please contact Sarah Best, NICRE Delivery Manager at # and Melanie Thompson‑Glen, NICRE Head of Business and Innovation at #.

• Manage, catalyse, conduct, and monitor progress of innovation projects
• Maintain/develop effective relationships and engagement with key stakeholders (practitioners, communities, policy staff, academics)
• Liaise with other NICRE research, innovation associates and project leads to help oversee the overall portfolio of projects
• Organise knowledge exchange events with communities, businesses, their representatives and policy makers and help to host discussions and facilitate productive debate
• Contribute to, develop and lead as appropriate actions to capture and share learning from innovation projects and evidence of the associated impacts, via appropriate measures, case studies and preparation of resources for the NICRE Innovation Portal
• Utilise appropriate frameworks, methods and techniques for evidence collection – including surveys, focus groups and interviews, submissions, conferences, policy workshops, blogs, web‑based resources etc
• Help identify funding opportunities and contribute to preparation of funding applications / business case development to support innovation activities nationally and regionally
• Facilitate links between innovation projects and research expertise within the University and wider university partners by working alongside academic staff and Newcastle University’s other National Innovation Centres, as necessary, to support a pipeline of development opportunities for NICRE and its partners, as well as NICRE’s key academic partners (Warwick, Gloucester, RAU)
• Attend NICRE team and project‑specific meetings as required, and assist with the day‑to‑day running of the team’s broader portfolio, reporting and other operational matters
• Work with NICRE’s lead academics and management team to support, develop and implement strategies for the achievement of NICRE’s aims and objectives
• Travel locally, nationally and on occasion internationally…