Royce seeks members for Strategic Advisory Board (SAB)

The Henry Royce Institute (Royce) is seeking applicants for membership of its Strategic Advisory Board (SAB).

Royce is looking to appoint up to five new members to its SAB, to succeed those whose terms of office are coming to an end in mid 2025.

Role Specification

The Strategic Advisory Board provides independent advice to the Governing Board (GB), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), on the programme of science activities, the provision of technical facilities, and the strategy and operation of Royce as a national institute for materials science and engineering. Key focus areas are:

Overseeing the operation of the facilities and access to these for the materials community.
Ensuring the quality and timeliness of scientific programmes and their output.
Supporting the role of the Institute in shaping the UK’s Advanced Materials landscape and in its role as a catalyst for materials innovation across industry and academia.
The SAB provides expert advice to the Royce executive officers and acts as a critical friend to them, along with providing advice to the GB on how successfully the vision and original goals are being achieved, including the evaluation of any metrics.

Term of office: Appointments will be made for 3 years in the first instance.

Meeting dates: The SAB meets a minimum of four times a year. Meetings are hosted at one of the Royce Partner sites.

Person Specification

Successful applicants will be strategic and creative in their thinking, with a successful scientific career and a demonstrable interest in Royce’s vision, mission, and strategy.

Candidates will be judged relative to their career stage on the following criteria:

National/international standing in an area of materials related research.
Interest in the promotion of the field of materials science as a whole.
Understanding and experience of industry-academia collaborations and, where appropriate, commercialisation of materials concepts.
For three of the appointments, we are looking for expertise in: Nuclear (fission or fusion), Steel, or Renewable Materials. We are looking for expertise in any of the ten Royce research areas for the two remaining posts.

The Board’s commitment to its diversity goals will be an important factor in its decision process (see ‘Diversity’ header below for more information). Applications are encouraged from groups currently under-represented on the Board. We are also particularly keen to have representation from early-career practitioners in the field, from both industry (in particular the SME community) and academia, who can bring a unique view to the Board.

Appointees will be expected to attend a minimum of four meetings per year. Each meeting typically lasts 4 hours and requires 2 hours of preparation. Members are paid a fee for each meeting they attend and, when attending physical meetings, are reimbursed for travel and subsistence expenses.

Please note that applications from individuals employed by one of the Royce Partner or Associate institutions cannot be considered.

Diversity

Royce welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation and transgender status. We particularly welcome applications from women and the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community, who are currently under-represented on the Board. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process.