The Deputy Director for Nursing Research provides senior professional leadership to deliver a national strategy that strengthens nursing and midwifery research capacity and capability across health and social care. The role focuses on embedding research into everyday practice, increasing the visibility and impact of the professions, and demonstrating their contribution to transformational system change and evidence-based care.
Reporting to the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer (Professional and System Leadership), the post holder works as part of the senior nursing and midwifery leadership team, collaborating across national, regional and local organisations, and with key external partners including arm’s-length bodies, professional organisations, and academic institutions.
The role is pivotal in advancing national nursing research priorities, supporting professional development, and ensuring research is integral to service delivery. It also provides strategic leadership for genomics within nursing, supporting the profession’s central role in the emerging genomic population health service, in line with the ambitions set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
Main duties of the job
- Encourage nursing and midwifery staff to undertake relevant research which will inform and support the sustainability and transformation of services to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and the population;
- Build on and further develop the nursing research portfolio as a resource to articulate the research agenda in nursing and midwifery, to strengthen the narrative so research becomes inherent in nursing;
- Support and champion the right settings and support for nurses to undertake research within the new pathways of healthcare delivery;
- Work with key partners and stakeholders in establishing research as a core skill in nursing that occurs in both pre and post graduate training to increase the confidence to pursue a research career thereafter;
- Increase the understanding of the importance of higher educational institutes for nursing research;
- Promote and support the impact of collaboration and the use of evidence as evaluation;
- Work with key stakeholders to encourage wider representation of research needs and application across the system;
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
As Deputy Director - Nursing research the post holder will use their nursing registration, knowledge, and skills to develop and implement a national strategy and aligned programme of work to embed the importance of nursing research capacity and capability within health and social care, and demonstrate the professions’ key contribution to transformational change by increasing the visibility and impact of nursing and midwifery research.
- To act as the principal research advisor to the CNO and senior team, serving as the designated CNO lead for nursing and midwifery research, and working closely with colleagues and partners across integrated regional operating models, wider systems and key stakeholders to ensure a clear, shared understanding of the value and impact of nursing and midwifery research and to strengthen collective leadership in this area.
- The post holder will also be expected to deputise at times for the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer (DCNO) – Professional and System Leadership.
- Ensure that robust analysis has a focus on issues such as safety, outcomes and sustainability;
- Identify and disseminate case study examples of nursing research where the evidence underpins what it is that the profession does, what works and the impact nursing has globally as well as the economic impact;
- To develop and implement a national strategy and aligned programme of work:
- To strengthen the involvement of nursing and midwifery staff in research and encourage clinical academic career pathways by raising the profile of clinical academia and promoting that contemporary research questions are always informed by clinical experience and the reality of care delivery.
- To actively champion and support nurses to undertake research,
underpinned by education and practice, to gather clear outcome measures and help deliver the highest standard of care for patients, individuals and populations.
- To ensure that there is a wider understanding that that the knowledge, experience and collective ambition of nursing and midwifery is crucial to the successful delivery of nursing research at all stages from early development right through to final publication and dissemination.
- To influence the delivery and development of post-graduate and post
registration courses for nurses to place an even greater focus on research and evidence, equipping the future workforce and nursing leaders with the necessary skills to drive evidence-based quality improvement;
- To highlight and help manage the need for ‘real-world’ research where students and practitioners can work together ensuring that research becomes ‘mainstream’ in health and care settings and is not seen as an additional extra;
- To support the advancement of clinical academic careers for nursing, and encourage the professions in applying for research funding and clinical fellowships;
- To work with professional bodies and other health and higher education bodies to strengthen the role of nursing research
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
