Researcher

Researcher 

This is a permanent, full-time role (35 hours per week)
Flexibility around working hours (to be discussed at interview) 

Home based:  The Foundation team works on a remote basis with team meetings held regularly in London or
Norwich. Meetings are also sometimes held at the MCS Service Company base near Warrington. The
postholder should expect to travel within the UK at least once or twice a month on average for
meetings or events.

Are you looking for a role that will jump start your professional career helping to tackle the
climate emergency? This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in a leading UK charity
working on decarbonising homes, heat and energy. 

The MCS Foundation is seeking a Researcher to support our work. The postholder will support our
work delivering the devolved campaigns and group research functions for The MCS Foundation. The
role will work across the Foundation group (the Charity and its trading subsidiary, MCS Service
Company), which works to influence public policy and deliver programmes to accelerate the drive
for net zero carbon emissions.

About Us 

The MCS Foundation is an independent UK-wide charity working to accelerate the adoption of
renewable energy and low carbon technologies. Homes account for around 17% of the UK’s carbon
emissions, so our sector has a crucial role to play in the drive for net zero. As an
organisation with strong links to government, industry and the NGO sector, we have a leading
role to play in driving that change. 

The Foundation was set up by the UK Government in 2018 to take ownership of the MCS standards
scheme – now run through MCS Service Company – and use the scheme’s surplus income to invest in
initiatives that support growth in the sector. We now have an established grants and research
programme focused on initiatives that can drive a step-change impact.

The MCS Foundation and MCS Service Company have a shared group external affairs strategy aimed
at using our leading position in the sector to advocate for the policy changes needed to
deliver the net zero target. Some of our campaigns focus on: introducing strong regulations to
embed net zero requirements in new build homes; working for comprehensive public engagement
services and green finance packages to enable the mass scale retrofitting of homes across the
UK. 

Through our Launchpad programme, MCS Group is convening our sector to address some of the key
barriers to mass scale deployment, particularly in the fields of green jobs and supporting the
development of mass retrofit plans at local level.

About the Role 

The Researcher post is a new position that will play a key role in supporting the delivery of
the Foundation’s group external affairs and launchpad strategies. The postholder will work
across a range of themes relevant to renewable technologies, housing retrofit and green jobs,
supporting the objectives of the Foundation to decarbonise homes, heat and energy. You will
work closely with colleagues across the group and partner organisations, helping to deliver our
policy objectives. 

You should be prepared to attend major events like party conferences, parliamentary and
report/project launch events and prepare research briefings to support the work of the External
Affairs team. The role will involve working with major environmental NGOs and key institutional
partners, building good relationships with their research teams. The role will also promote and
highlight our grants programme and the projects associated with the Foundation’s Launchpad.
Working in a small but rapidly growing team, you will be instrumental in supporting the
delivery of our programmes, policy and campaigns.

The brief for the role is UK-wide so will incorporate the policy landscapes in devolved nations
and regions. 

About the Candidate 

The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level or equivalent, with demonstrable
experience of a range of research methods, ideally including both quantitative and qualitative
methods.

You will be passionate about addressing climate change and advancing the Foundation’s mission with strong ethics and social responsibility.

 In addition, you should have: 

• Experience of the parliamentary process and how advocacy campaigning works. 
• Proven ability to handle complex subjects identifying key issues, and communicate in clear
  way to make any research and reports accessible for political and key audiences, including
  industry, supporters, politicians, civil servants, business etc. 
• Able to work unsupervised and manage their priorities to meet deadlines 
• Work as part of a team 
• Able to communicate effectively at a senior level on policy, research and campaign
  objectives to a range of audiences 
• Campaign experience within an NGO, scientific, climate change, campaigning or political
  environment would be an advantage. 
• Confident user in MS Office and Windows applications. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Work across the Foundation providing research support to the External Affairs team to help
  them deliver the political advocacy engagement strategies and research needed to highlight our
  solutions 
• Create research briefings based on clear scientific evidence-based work to inform and
  develop our position, supporting our ambition as the go to organisation on zero carbon homes
  and renewables. 
• Attend research meetings across the sector through installers, associations, business, NGOs
  and Government.
• Support the production of reports, political briefings, fact sheets. 
• To build strategic research and academic relationships to forward the research goals and
  objectives of the organisation. 
• To represent the organisation and help organise and take part in public facing events when
  needed, to give presentations and act as a representative of MCS where appropriate 
• To support the policy research function across the whole MCS group, including the responses
  to government and statutory consultations across all of the devolved nations. 
• The postholder will be expected to develop knowledge of, and keep abreast of relevant
  developments across the homes, renewables and climate change sector.
• Build up knowledge and expertise in the campaign areas. 
• Undertake any other duties as directed by the Director of External Affairs 

At MCS Foundation we care about our employees, this is reflected in our employee benefits and policies:

• 25 days’ annual leave per annum – increasing to 28 days with 3 years’ service, and to 30
  days with 5 years’ service
• 8% company pension contribution
• Access to and support with continuous professional development
• Access to salary sacrifice schemes, such as Cycle2Work
• Fully expensed Christmas party
• Payment of one professional subscription 
• Medicash Annual Subscription
• Access to a Mental health first aider and a Menopause champion
• Provision of free fruit, tea and coffee, soft drinks, breads and spreads, and breakfast when you visit the office
• An innovative office environment that encourages collaboration
• Supportive HR policies including enhanced maternity/paternity leave, sick leave, and
  emergency paid leave

Application Process

Please submit your current CV and a letter of application detailing how your skills and experience meet the requirements of this role.  All applications to be sent to: [email protected]

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications
for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as
possible.