Digital Communications Officer

Digital Communications Officer

ALLEA – European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities

Brussels, Belgium

ALLEA is seeking a full-time Digital Communications Officer for the EU-funded project ‘Science Advice for Policy by European Academies’ (SAPEA), part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM).

• Start date: As soon as possible;
• End date: In the first instance, the contract is fixed-term until the end of the current SAPEA project on 30 April 2029. We expect that it will be possible to renew the contract beyond that date, but this is subject to renewed mandate and funding from the European Commission;
• Location: Our office is located in central Brussels. Our team is working flexibly between the office and home; similar arrangements will be discussed with the successful candidate;
• Type of contract: The contract will be in accordance with Belgian labour regulations;
• Benefits: ALLEA offers generous additional extra-legal leave days, in addition to the Belgian annual leave days and allowances. Other benefits include meal vouchers, flexible hours, commuting allowance and teleworking allowance are provided in addition to the monthly gross salary;
• Salary: Starting salaries will be negotiated with the right candidates depending on experience, within a range of 3200 – 3600 €. This total monthly gross salary is paid 13,92 times per year as per Belgian labour regulations.

About the work of SAPEA and the communications team

SAPEA is part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (www.scientificadvice.eu). Together with the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, we provide independent scientific advice to European Commissioners to support their decision-making.

In addition to our primary activities, we also have a mission to communicate widely about the work of the SAM, and to raise awareness and stimulate debate about the role of scientific evidence in policymaking. These activities are led by the SAPEA communications team, which currently consists of a Head of Communications, a Communications Manager and a Digital Communications Officer.

We also prioritise the highest standards of transparency and accessibility in all aspects of our work, and the communications team has a key role to play in this.

About ALLEA

ALLEA (www.allea.org) is the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, representing almost 60 academies from 40 countries in Europe. Since its foundation in 1994, ALLEA speaks out on behalf of its members on the European and international stages, promotes science as a global public good, and facilitates scientific collaboration across borders and disciplines. As one of the five Academy Networks that jointly make up SAPEA, ALLEA leads on SAPEA communications activities and acts as employer for communications staff.

About this role

We are seeking to strongly increase the scope and impact of our communications, to promote a wider understanding of our activities, support our events, and lead conversations about science and policy in a wide range of public and stakeholder audiences. The Digital Communications Officer will play a key role in proposing and creating attractive content for all our current channels.

We are especially keen to support the Digital Communications Officer in developing innovative channels and methods of communication to reach new target audiences. We anticipate that this may include less ‘traditional’ social media platforms and apps. In general, we are seeking someone with creative and unexpected ideas, who can think outside the constraints of a ‘traditional’ public sector or academic communications role, while maintaining a laser-sharp focus on reaching the audiences which are relevant to our overall strategic objectives, and on maintaining the high quality of all our public outputs.

As a small team, we also expect all colleagues to pull their weight in the general activities of the communications team.

Responsibilities and tasks

As Digital Communications Officer, your responsibilities and tasks will include:

• Create and publish regular, lively content across SAM’s digital communications channels, as text, video, graphics, advertising, and other formats as required;
• Propose, develop, execute and monitor social media campaigns to support SAM activities and messages;
• Propose and create innovative forms of digital communication to reach new target audiences;
• Propose, contribute and develop lively content for the websites developed by SAM;
• Propose, develop and collect data to demonstrate the impact of our digital communications activities, including for the purposes of continuous evaluation and improvement;
• Draft and send email newsletters;
• Engage in active horizon-scanning on social media, to alert colleagues to current and upcoming opportunities for effective communication;
• Participate in third-party events relevant to SAM’s work, representing SAM where required;
• As required, contribute more broadly to communications and public engagement activities in a range of formats;
• Contribute to discussions about the broader SAM communications strategy;
• Regularly update your own awareness and skills regarding the latest digital communication idioms, platforms, tools and software, and provide guidance to colleagues in these;
• Assist with the general smooth running of the SAPEA communications team.

Personal profile

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• 2-3 years of relevant professional experience;
• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant area;
• Experience in writing and developing content in styles and formats appropriate to websites and other digital media, including graphics and short videos;
• Excellent oral and written proficiency in English, including clear and confident communication skills;
• Experience of managing an organisation’s social media activities;
• Experience of managing a website using WordPress or another common CMS;
• Creative and artistic flair;
• Flexibility and adaptability to build strong working relationships with colleagues, including in the absence of strict lines of accountability between different parts of the organisation (e.g. in a consortium of independent organisations).

Additional desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Experience of working in a small, flexible team or an informally-structured organisation;
• Experience or demonstrated interest in science communication, public policy, EU politics or public engagement work;
• Interest in and commitment to the importance of scientific evidence in policymaking, and/or a broad understanding of policymaking processes at European level;
• Knowledge of another EU language (besides English);
• Technical skills in one or more of the following: video editing (e.g. Premiere Pro); audio editing (e.g. Audition), graphics editing (e.g. Photoshop, Canva, Illustrator); page layout (e.g. InDesign); coding for the web (e.g. HTML); web streaming (e.g. Streamyard, YouTube); mobile apps.

Because of the nature of this role, we anticipate that the right candidate might have a more unorthodox background or range of experiences than would be expected for other roles in academic or public policy communications. For this reason, if you believe your skills and experience would make you an excellent candidate for this post, but you are not able to meet all of the above requirements, we would still welcome an application from you.

How to apply

To apply, please send your CV, motivation letter and further application documents and/or references to recruitment@sapea.info (pdf documents, not larger than 2 MB). We will close applications on 23 March 2025, but applications will be processed on a rolling basis and we may approach suitable candidates earlier for an initial conversation.

For interviews, reasonable travel expenses can be reimbursed. We will also consider an online interview process for candidates currently based outside Belgium.

We apply an equal opportunities policy. Please let us know in your application if you require any adaptations to the interview process because of a disability or other circumstances.

Further information

SAPEA is part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism. It is funded by the European Union.