WittKieffer

Job Description

University of Dundee

Director of the Binks Institute for Sustainability

The University of Dundee is an extraordinary university, presenting a unique blend of inspiring education and student experience, world-class research and an outstanding record of transformative impact, locally and globally, through enterprise and engagement in partnerships.

Launching the Binks Institute for Sustainability is a hugely important and strategically significant step for us in delivering positive social transformation through the excellence and intensity of our research, education and engagement. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and external partnerships, the Institute will address the need for effective climate action, including successful Net Zero strategies, and the associated need to achieve equity and inclusion in a just transition to a sustainable world.

We now seek to appoint an inspiring academic leader to join us as the founding Director of the Institute. They will develop a motivated and connected team, including core co-located colleagues and research students, as well as a committed group of Institute Members from across the University, whose work has been widely recognised in science, law and policy related to energy and water, in community-based sustainability initiatives, sustainable materials and engineering, and crop resilience bioscience. By bringing these teams together, the work of the Institute will respect the complexity of the problems we face by drawing on insights generated from across the creative arts, humanities and social sciences as well as engineering and life sciences.

Candidates will bring a track record of inspirational leadership in a field of sustainability, gained within a complex, multi-scaled and interdisciplinary environment. They will be able to inspire colleagues with their vision for the Institute as an international leader in selected areas of expertise. Their own expertise will complement the research strengths of the University of Dundee and enhance the University s research reputation. They will demonstrate the ability to lead complex, interdisciplinary research and innovation programmes, while establishing an inclusive research culture that values and practises open research, equality and opportunity. With a collaborative style and excellent communication skills, the successful candidate will help to secure substantial funding for the Institute, while promoting its activities externally, with funders, project partners, stakeholders, business and the public.

We know that across our university, women, people of colour and people with disabilities are underrepresented in our senior positions and we want this to change. Therefore, we are very keen to receive applications from people who bring a range of different lived experiences into our leadership team.

How to Apply

For further information, please visit WittKieffer’s website.

Enquiries or applications can be made, in confidence, to Mary Comer at WittKieffer via e-mail to mcomer(at)

Applications should include the following:
• an up-to-date CV; and
• a covering letter which sets out your interest in the role and encapsulates the aspects of your experience relevant to the required criteria. Please include current salary details and the names and contact details of three referees. Referees will not be approached until the final stages and not without your prior permission.

Completed applications should be submitted electronically to WittKieffer by 12 noon on Thursday 7 December 2023.

All candidates are also requested to complete an online Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form:

This will assist the University of Dundee in monitoring selection decisions to assess whether equality of opportunity is being achieved. Information collated from the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Forms will not be used as part of the selection process and will be treated as strictly confidential.

TO APPLY PLEASE CLICK THE “APPLY NOW” BUTTON AND YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO BEGIN THE APPLICATION PROCESS