LIDA Director of Research and Innovation

LIDA Director of Research and Innovation

Leeds Institute for Data Analytics

20% Full-time equivalent, fixed term for 2 years in the first instance

This role is only open to internal applicants employed at the University of Leeds holding at grade 9 or 10.

Do you have a vision for the future direction of interdisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence research at the University of Leeds? Do you have senior leadership experience to develop and implement this vision?

We are particularly encouraging female and Global Majority candidates to apply for this post as part of LIDA's strategic commitment to addressing underrepresentation of these groups in senior leadership roles in LIDA and in STEM leadership more broadly.

Background to LIDA

LIDA's vision is to generate societal impact and improve global wellbeing and prosperity through internationally outstanding research, education and training, in interdisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence (AI). To achieve this, LIDA aims to build upon existing strengths across the University so that:

• UoL's Data Science and AI ecosystem is more than the sum of its parts
• UoL offers a coherent and distinct proposition in data science and AI to compete nationally and internationally.
• UoL provides a home for capacity building and the development of future leaders in the field.

LIDA's strategic research priorities, as detailed in our latest 5-year strategy, are to:

• Produce world-class cross disciplinary research
• Diversify & increase data science & AI research income
• Deliver impactful research & innovation
• Develop, support & retain an inclusive research community.

To date, in the current Research Excellence Framework (REF2029) period, LIDA's research portfolio comprises 131 projects supported by £127 million of external awards from 43 funders. Our projects involve 340 PIs/COIs from 69 schools/institutes across all seven Faculties at the University of Leeds. Two thirds of the projects are interdisciplinary.

Our current live portfolio of data analytics research and innovation project portfolio is worth over £90 million, driven by LIDA's research Communities focused on Health; Food; Artificial Intelligence; Data Visualisation; Immersive Technologies; and Data Science Infrastructures.

Contact information

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Professor Chris P Gale
Email: c.p.gale@leeds.ac.uk

Professor Susan Grant Muller
Email: S.M.Grant-Muller@its.leeds.ac.uk

Job Details

Location
Leeds - Main Campus

Faculty/Service
Faculty of Medicine & Health

School/Institute
Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)

Category
Academic

Grade
Grade 10

Salary
£75,912 to £85,413 p.a. pro rata

Working Time
0.2 FTE

Post Type
Part Time

Contract Type
Fixed Term (2 years - to complete specific time limited work.)

Release Date
Thursday 30 July 2026

Closing Date
Sunday 13 September 2026

Interview Date
To be confirmed

#s1-Gen

20% Full-time equivalent, fixed term for 2 years in the first instance
This role is only open to internal applicants employed at the University of Leeds holding at grade 9 or 10.
Do you have a vision for the future direction of interdisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence research at the University of Leeds? Do you have senior leadership experience to develop and implement this vision?
We are particularly encouraging female and Global Majority candidates to apply for this post as part of LIDA's strategic commitment to addressing underrepresentation of these groups in senior leadership roles in LIDA and in STEM leadership more broadly.
Background to LIDA
LIDA's vision is to generate societal impact and improve global wellbeing and prosperity through internationally outstanding research, education and training, in interdisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence (AI). To achieve this, LIDA aims to build upon existing strengths across the University so that:
· UoL's Data Science and AI ecosystem is more than the sum of its parts
· UoL offers a coherent and distinct proposition in data science and AI to compete nationally and internationally.
· UoL provides a home for capacity building and the development of future leaders in the field.
LIDA's strategic research priorities, as detailed in our latest 5-year strategy https://lida.leeds.ac.uk/our-strategy-2024-29/ are to:
· Produce world-class cross disciplinary research
· Diversify & increase data science & AI research income
· Deliver impactful research & innovation
· Develop, support & retain an inclusive research community.
To date, in the current Research Excellence Framework (REF2029) period, LIDA's research portfolio comprises 131 projects supported by £127 million of external awards from 43 funders. Our projects involve 340 PIs/COIs from 69 schools/institutes across all seven Faculties at the University of Leeds. Two thirds of the projects are interdisciplinary.
Our current live portfolio of data analytics research and innovation project portfolio is worth over £90 million, driven by LIDA's research Communities focused on Health; Food; Artificial Intelligence; Data Visualisation; Immersive Technologies; and Data Science Infrastructures. You can find more about them here: https://lida.leeds.ac.uk/communities-programmes