Careers

Description:

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

IHME has an outstanding opportunity for a Scientific Proposal Writer to join the Proposal Development Team.

POSITION PURPOSE

• The primary purpose of this position is to support the development of high-quality proposals for a variety of scientific topics that broaden the quantitative evidence base for health. This individual will write and guide the development of proposals in collaboration with researchers and senior staff through a range of potential funding mechanisms including competitive grants, contracts, and services agreements.
• This position is integral to IHME being able to sustain funding of existing projects and spur growth of new research areas aligned with IHME’s organizational goals to expand the quantitative evidence base in health. The Scientific Writer will possess a commanding knowledge of IHME’s interdisciplinary quantitative science in fields including epidemiology, biostatistics, survey methodology, health economics, demography, and social determinants. This role sits on IHME’s Organizational Development and Training Team in order to maximize the alignment between the individual’s work and the role that proposal development plays in the growth of the organization, its research streams, and in faculty development. This position is contingent upon project funding availability.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Proposal Development and Scientific Writing

• Write high-quality interdisciplinary scientific proposals for funding in conjunction with faculty, staff, and project managers, including background statements, research approach descriptions, deliverable statements, management plans, letters of intent, briefs, concept pitches, acknowledgments, presentations, and other communications. This will include developing and ideating novel areas of research that IHME could and should pursue along with translating well-developed ideas from research teams.
• Provide and incorporate constructive feedback into proposal materials in consultation with the Principal Investigator (PI) and other team leads for greater accuracy, clarity, grammar, and syntax. Draft revisions and responses to reviewers in consultation with faculty, team leads, and other senior IHME members.
• Translate complex scientific concepts and data into novel scientific directions and approaches that highlight IHME’s competitive strengths and advantages through scientific proposals.
• Demonstrate command of central research objectives and related activities at IHME in order to strategically identify, assess, and recommend potential funding opportunities, translate gaps in these objectives into written proposals, and frame content in a way that maximizes our past experience and successes.
• Recommend funding sources and specific proposals to IHME’s senior leadership for final authorization to pursue them following regular reviews of open funding opportunities at a range of donors to identify matches with IHME’s funding needs.
• Participate directly in scoping processes for new proposals – including determining the flow and dependencies of activities and resource considerations, working directly with IHME senior leadership, faculty, and the leadership of functional and research teams when doing so.

Project Management

• Effectively delegate and implement development plans across multiple proposals to achieve demanding, dynamic, and time-sensitive proposal milestones.
• Work with coordinators and specialists on the Proposal Development and Financial Planning teams to align on deadlines, responsibilities, timelines, and communication strategies across the technical and non-technical components of proposals.
• Manage content creation, review, and revision, taking responsibility to ensure high-quality proposals for internal and external reviews.
• Maintain familiarity with a range of funding mechanisms, including competitive grants, contracts, and work for hire. Work with grant and contract specialists to advise on how to fit the constraints of said mechanism with donor guidelines and parameters.
• Prepare and present briefings for IHME faculty and leadership for consideration of different proposal opportunities. Recommend funding sources and specific proposals to IHME’s senior leadership for final authorization for pursuit following reviews of open funding opportunities at a range of donors to identify matches with IHME’s funding needs.
• Develop and manage relationships with external partners who could collaborate in proposal development, such as partnering research institutions, government actors, foundations, and other potential research and engagement partners.

Research Learning and Command

• Maintain a commanding knowledge of the intellectual material and key analytic concepts that relate to the interdisciplinary quantitative science behind proposal ideas in order to clearly and concisely write about their scientific relevance, impact, objectives, and key intellectual contributions. Stay up to date on IHME’s new and advancing research topics that span the fields of epidemiology, biostatistics, survey methodology, health economics, health system performance, demography, social determinants, computational algorithms, and others.
• Maintain awareness of organization and team-level goals, as well as institutional strategic plans, annual plan of work, and annual reports.
• Maintain a functional understanding of how to use IHME’s visualization and data download tools, publications, reports, presentations, and other materials to access and interpret high-volume data produced by IHME as supporting material for proposal scoping or background.
• Maintain familiarity with and contribute suggestions for expanding IHME’s institutional partners, including academic research institutions, think tanks, clinical facilities, government organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Must demonstrate cultural competency and an ability to collaborate and work with a wide range of project team members.
• Maintain familiarity and expand landscape of potential funding organizations including private foundations, individual philanthropists, and government and inter-governmental agencies.