Associate Director - Creative Content Exchange - Economic R&D MAP

Associate Director Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Salary:£70,752 per annum.
Band: UKRI Band G.
Contract Type: Open-ended.
Hours: Full-time/ Part Time. (minimum 0.8 FTE) (flexible working available)
Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available.

Closing Date: 20/03/2026

The Research & Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP) is the Government’s flagship new Mission-led R&D programme to transform people’s lives and drive economic growth.

The programme has a £500m budget to galvanise the private sector, third sector and academia to develop new innovative solutions to the biggest problems facing society today. The programme will catalise cutting-edge research, technology, service solutions and IP aligned to the UK Government’s five National Missions and deliver the milestones in the Plan for Change.

The programme is currently developing its approaches across the Missions. Joining at this stage presents a real opportunity to establish and drive the strategic and operational direction of the programme and set the agenda for the UK’s approach to 2030.

"We will develop a thriving, trusted, financially sustainable digital marketplace for creative and cultural content owners to license content, allowing them to generate commercial licensing revenue and take advantage of new commercial opportunities offered by AI. The objective is for the marketplace to be generating revenues of £50m per year by 2030."

The CCE Challenge is in its pilot phase, creating a marketplace as a commercial and investible proposition, to enable the sale and purchase through multiple mechanisms e.g. royalties and licences, for creative data, content and assets. The assets would be from the public and private sector (the content providers - initially large British cultural institutions, mainly GLAM, but later SMEs and individuals) supporting the discovery and realisation of value for them, while allowing ease of access for data and content users, including AI model developers, data product developers, other content consumers such as other creative companies or researchers (content consumers).

You’ll be working with industry leaders, cultural institutions, government, and some of the UK’s biggest museums to help accelerate the unlocking of investment into the digitisation of assets.

This is your opportunity to have a positive impact on the UK economy and drive innovation. Although the primary Challenge is on CCE, there is the potential to launch other Challenges, including one on digital IDs in the finance sector. As an Associate Director, you’ll collaborate with national experts to drive strategic innovation, foster stakeholder partnerships, and tackle industry challenges head-on.

You’ll play a pivotal role in aligning research and commercial priorities, while leading high-impact projects that support the UK’s economic goals.

As Associate Director, you will bring energy, high standards, a desire to do things differently and an understanding of urgency and pace. You will join the Challenge senior leadership team, helping to shape the strategic direction of the Challenge-specific research and innovation (R&I) in the UK while delivering this flagship programme.

This is a unique opportunity to lead in a significant cross-sector programme that creates real world impact through collaborative, evidence-led innovation. The role combines programme delivery, strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement and senior-level management.

The role requires self-awareness, excellent personal resilience, as well as a high level of personal motivation to achieve widespread impact, along with strong influencing skills and levels of personal resilience.

You will be expected to act in the absence of the Challenge Director and will deputise for the Challenge Director as required.

• Provide strategic leadership for the design and delivery of Challenge specific R&I, ensuring it is ambitious, independent, and trusted across research, policy, and public sectors and delivers…