Programme Manager (Fixed Term) Full-time NEW

Programme Manager For The Open Psychiatry Project

This is an exceptional opportunity to lead and shape a landmark research programme, based at the University of Cambridge. The Open Psychiatry Project (OPP) is a £2.4 million, UKRI- and NIHR-funded collaboration spanning six UK institutions, NHS Trusts, the European Bioinformatics Institute, and industry partners. Its ambition is bold: to transform how mental health “omic” data – genetic, proteomic and metabolomic – is accessed, analysed and used to drive new treatments for patients. Mental health conditions affect millions of people and cost the UK economy around £300 billion per year, yet research funding and therapeutic innovation have lagged far behind other disease areas. OPP is a direct response to that challenge. The Programme Manager will drive this project, working closely with and reporting to the Principal Investigator, Dr Mary-Ellen Lynall. The post is based in the Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

OPP will enhance the EBI Open Targets Platform (73,000 users worldwide) with psychiatric omics data to maximise the utility of the platform for target discovery, biomarker discovery, and accessibility to non-scientists. OPP will also build an open platform connecting multiple UK mental health omic datasets through privacy-preserving federated analysis in collaboration with commercial partner Bitfount and the DATAMIND Trusted Research Environment. For the first time, researchers, clinicians, industry, and patients will be able to access and interrogate psychiatric omic datasets at scale without compromising individual privacy. The project encompasses five major workstreams: enhancing containerised workflows for federated genomic analysis; enhancing the Open Targets Platform to maximise its ability to prioritise treatment targets for mental health disorders; establishing FedOMICS, a new mental health omic data federation framework with the necessary governance structures and data access agreements; embedding co-production with people with lived experience throughout; and scoping commercialisation pathways. The programme involves leading academic centres, NHS Trusts and Secure Data Environments across the UK, as well as international consortia including the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The Programme Manager will take full ownership of delivering this complex, multi-partner project on time and within budget. This will involve coordinating activity across institutions at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Swansea, and the European Bioinformatics Institute at Hinxton; managing a £2.4 million budget; overseeing governance, reporting and finance; line-managing junior colleagues; and serving as the central point of contact for the Executive Committee, co-investigators, institutional leads, and funders. The post-holder will also have an important role in developing follow-on funding applications and commercialisation strategy.

The post is based in the Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Regular travel to the European Bioinformatics Institute at Hinxton is expected for meetings with Open Targets colleagues; a direct shuttle bus from Cambridge is available. The role offers a stimulating and collaborative working environment, with access to University career development programmes and the wider Cambridge research community.

OPP has the potential to position the UK as the leading international provider of open, accessible mental health omic data, and to accelerate the development of genuinely personalised treatments for patients. We are looking for an experienced, motivated programme manager who is ready to take on a complex role that sits at the intersection of cutting-edge data science, clinical research, and meaningful patient involvement.