The Academy of Medical Sciences improves lives through health research and ensures the UK remains at the forefront of medical science globally. We bring together researchers, healthcare leaders, policymakers, industry and patients to help turn discovery into better health for people and communities across the UK and beyond.
As the UK’s national academy for medical sciences and the independent voice of biomedical and health research, we:
- Support researchers and strengthen careers in medical sciences.
- Shape policy through independent, evidence-based advice.
- Connect academia, the NHS, industry, government, charities and society.
- Drive collaboration to accelerate innovation and improve health.
At the heart of the Academy is our Fellowship: a community of around 1,600 leading biomedical and health scientists. They work alongside wider networks of researchers, clinicians, patients, industry and policymakers to improve health.
We have six priorities:
- Make the UK the best place in the world to have a career in medical sciences.
- Improve health outcomes in the UK and internationally through our policy work.
- Build the pathway from UK discovery to patient benefit, and convene the system to use it.
- Increase public trust in medical sciences in an era of global misinformation.
- Connect and support the community of medical sciences.
- Be a resilient, high-performing organisation with strong finances, inspiring culture and collaborative impact.
Our Organisational Context
The Academy is in a period of transformation. We created the Operations Directorate in 2026 to bring strategy and planning, finance, people and culture, fundraising, impact and grant assurance, and operations and infrastructure into one place. Several of those teams are new or newly shaped, including a new strategy, planning and programme management function and a new Head of Operations and Infrastructure. These functions are crucial to the Academy’s success and now need to be embedded as an integrated, high-performing engine that equips and enables every part of the organisation to deliver at its best.
We also want to change how we are funded. Historically the Academy has relied on a small number of large funders. We have an opportunity with the new direction to broaden that out, and bring in new partners, including a wider range of charities and foundations, corporate partnerships, philanthropy and our trading company. The trading company’s board has recently been renewed with a wider set of perspectives, and we would like it to become an important part of how we fund our mission. The Chief Operating Officer leads that work.
Our Commitment to Inclusion
We want the Academy, and the wider medical sciences community, to reflect the society we serve. That shapes who we fund, how we run our programmes, how we recruit, and how we treat each other at work. We would particularly welcome applications from people whose backgrounds and experience are different from those already represented in our senior team, and we will make any adjustments you need during the process or on appointment.