Head of Innovation Hub

Reference: DFIDJOB-0163

Closing date: 13 February 2012

Interview date: Not Specified

Number of vacancies: 1

Salary: £59,994 - £68,221 per annum

Location: Central London

Appointment Terms: Permanent

Working Arrangements: Full-time

Specific requirements:

Brief description: An excellent opportunity for someone who is passionate about innovation and wants to drive cultural change in the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to lead a high profile agenda across the whole organisation, playing a prominent role engaging with the centre of Government, Ministers and leading international partners.
Job Description – A1 Head of Innovation Hub
Background

An excellent opportunity for someone who is passionate about innovation and wants to drive cultural change in the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to lead a high profile agenda across the whole organisation, playing a prominent role engaging with the centre of Government, Ministers and leading international partners.

Innovation is a concept, practice and capability that increasingly defines successful organizations. Those organizations that consistently generate and execute new ideas tend to be more effective at achieving their goals, whether financial or social, and to be leaders in their fields. The Coalition Government has placed a strong priority on innovation. This Financial Year, all UK Government Departments will be benchmarked on their Innovation Capability as part of the next Capability Review.

In the field of international development, innovation is responsible for many of the biggest transformations in people’s lives in developing countries, from the green revolution and micro-finance to mobile banking and public-private partnerships. But there is also a general recognition that the development community’s current approaches are not keeping up with the pace and nature of global change and are increasingly expected to achieve more with fewer resources. At the same time, more actors are entering the development and humanitarian arenas and the opportunities for novel partnerships, approaches, and financing models are unprecedented.

The International Development Secretary is driving DFID to strengthen its capability for effective innovation. To build on DFID’s existing innovation ethos and activities, he has established a number of initiatives to spur even greater innovation, including funds to generate innovations in humanitarian assistance, green technologies, financing models, and public-private collaboration.

For DFID, innovation in international development includes more than scientific discovery and new technologies. It embraces a wide range of policies, practices and techniques for achieving development outcomes. It is also more than ideas. It is a dynamic process that begins with an idea but does not become an innovation until it is proven effective, useful and more broadly adopted. DFID plays different roles in this process, including innovator, catalyst, manager and connector.

Internal assessments of DFID’s innovation capability conclude that, while DFID is recognised as an innovative organization and has generated some significant innovations, more should be done to strengthen DFID’s innovation capability and activities so that it consistently and sustainably produces transformative results through innovation. DFID is therefore establishing an Innovation Hub to lead further work on fostering innovation in DFID in order to support its ambition to be an effective and transformational industry leader. The Hub will serve as a locus of expertise and support to DFID’s departments and country offices, as well as a catalyst and connector for outside organisations. It will partner with innovation experts and creative thinkers and will draw together a network of innovators from the private sector, NGOs, academics and across-Whitehall. The Hub will explore methods for creating an internal marketplace for innovations and will work closely with other DFID staff to identify opportunities for transformative investments.
Policy Division and Research and Evidence Division

The Innovation Hub will initially be located in DFID’s Policy Division which is responsible for providing top class policy analysis and practical policy advice on addressing the world’s major development challenges to Ministers, other parts of the UK Government, and the International Community. Working closely on the evidence base with colleagues in the Research and Evidence Division, it tries to answer questions such as: how can the UK Government promote income growth for poor people in a hugely unequal world? What policies and institutions should the UK help to create in order to stop the potentially devastating impact of climate change on the entire development endeavour? What practical steps should be taken to raise the quality of life and dignity for the “bottom billion”? What are the most creative ways to catalyse new crop development, so that rural incomes are raised and nutrition improved?
Job Description/ Duties

The Head of the Innovation Hub will lead an effort to: (i) better define and advance DFID’s innovation agenda, (ii) establish and manage the Innovation Hub, (iii) build a sustainable innovation capability, (iv) advise departments and country offices on techniques for designing and implementing innovation initiatives; and (v) develop external partnerships and networks nationally and internationally.

The post holder will provide a focal point for Whitehall interaction on Innovation. S/he will work closely with the Director-General Policy and Global Programmes, the Directors of Policy Division and Research and Evidence Division, and the Chief Innovation Officer. The post will be line managed by the Head of Cabinet for Policy and Research Divisions.

An early task will be to complete the definition of DFID’s innovation strategy. The successful applicant will then need to establish the Hub’s team which will include recruiting from within the civil service but also developing placement partnerships with private sector organisations that might have expertise to lend to DFID. In carrying out the following activities, the post holder will build upon and support efforts of the Chief Innovation Officer.

Objective 1: To define DFID’s strategy for innovation and resources required to deliver it.

Build an internal innovation network that draws upon existing innovation expertise and insights sto further define the agenda and strategy.
Set out DFID’s Innovation Strategy for delivering on leadership’s guidance and an action plan for strengthening DFID’s innovation capability.
Identify the financial and human resources required for the Hub and across the organization to deliver the strategy.

Objective 2: Establish the Innovation Hub

Establish the Hub Team, including permanent positions and new arrangements for short-term external experts to be detailed to the Hub.
Begin implementing the Hub’s terms of reference, including internal and external activities that build DFID’s innovation expertise and activities.
Build formal and informal relationships throughout DFID to advance the organization’s innovation objectives, including offering support, advice, training and other expertise.
Immediately identify how the Hub can leverage DFID technology to build internal and external innovation networks, share lessons learned and other information, offer expertise, and seek input from stakeholders.

Objective 3: Lead effort to build a capability and culture of innovation in DFID

Working closely with the implementing divisions and building on previous work done by the Chief Innovation Officer, identify requirements and develop an action plan for building an innovation capability and expertise at DFID.
Manage the change required to build this capability. Among other things, establish mechanisms by which the whole “innovation cycle” could be promoted through DFID.
Make concrete recommendations to leadership and others in DFID for actions that will build upon DFID’s current innovative culture.
Develop new methodologies and techniques that foster local, community-based innovation and entrepreneurship.

Objective 4: Lead effort to strengthen existing innovation projects and initiatives at DFID

Working in partnership with the implementing divisions, help bring existing innovation projects in line with DFID’s new approach to innovation and with best practices.
Work with regional divisions and country offices on defining and establishing innovative approaches in the bilateral programme – from ideas and solutions to testing and scaling up - and sharing the lessons.
Lead new initiatives to generate innovations across priorities areas identified in the Innovation Strategy

Objective 5: Lead DFID’s external representation on innovation

Work closely with the senior leadership to engage effectively with Ministers and high-level external stakeholders.
Build new partnerships and networks with innovation counterparts across Whitehall and other organisations.
Respond to external queries on what DFID is doing on innovation and represent DFID as required at external events.

Relevant job specific skills and/or technical competencies required

We are looking for a highly energetic and creative individual who can inspire confidence across DFID and motivate diverse stakeholders. This is a unique opportunity to establish a new entity within DFID which will drive changes that transform lives. This new post suits someone with proven experience in developing and taking to scale innovative approaches to social challenges and/or someone with proven innovation management experience from industry, non-profit, R&D spaces, or other sectors. The successful candidate will have the ability to translate this experience into practical changes to ways of working across DFID, and to apply concepts and techniques of innovation in the context of international development.
Essential Skills and Experience

Strong and demonstrable interest and experience in innovation, preferably public and social innovation.

Experience establishing new initiatives or organizations and/or leading innovation management and organizational change efforts.
Experience building relationships and networks and achieving results using such networks.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with an ability to explain complex concepts (including scientific concepts) in a simple manner and to tailor outputs to different audiences.
Strong analytical skills with a proven ability to interpret and critique primary research papers on innovation and reports.
Good awareness of development issues and challenges.
Personal credibility, excellent strategic and political awareness, strong policy development skills and a proven ability to represent organisations at the highest levels, including with Governments.
Commitment to DFID’s development objectives.
Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with others inside and outside the organisation.

Desirable

Masters degree or higher in a relevant discipline.
A clear understanding of the role of innovation in international development, including an appreciation of how knowledge is generated, and the various pathways whereby innovation is used for impact in international development.
A network of external contacts on innovation is desirable.
Experience of working with DFID or other Government departments, at country and HQ level.