United Kingdom onlyConvergent Research is a non-profit science studio best known for pioneering the Focused Research Organization (FRO). We architect pivotal infrastructure that removes bottlenecks to breakthrough scientific research. We do this because we believe that focused, fast-moving, coordinated team efforts are essential for solving some of the most significant scientific and technological challenges of today.
FROs are a new operating model for science that ensures rapid iteration cycles and high-throughput learning. Convergent secures funding and provides an operational backbone for counterfactual RD, creating space for scientists to do what they do best. FRO teams are agile, creative, and risk-tolerant as a result. They make fast progress because they start and stay focused.
About the role
Convergent Research has partnered with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to launch an open call for Focused Research Organizations (FROs) based in the UK that could unlock transformative progress in ARIA’s opportunity spaces. Selected candidates will participate in the 2025 FRO Founder Residency, a 6 month bootcamp designed to help them develop a technical and operational plan for creating a purpose-built organization dedicated to delivering high-impact public goods. The residency is designed to support visionary scientists, engineers, and innovators who are driven to break bottlenecks and build platforms to catalyze advancements across entire scientific fields.
That’s where you come in. As Mentor Advisor, you’ll be a critical part of incubating, selecting and launching the first FROs in the UK. You’ll be their go-to source of mentorship and coaching, inspiring and equipping talented teams of scientists and engineers to build key scientific infrastructure to unblock critical scientific bottlenecks, and helping them grow into great founders.
This role is part-time and we anticipate it will require 10-20 hours per week for 7 months. Compensation will be based on experience.
You will
- Be the key source of mentorship to participants during the 6 month residency, meeting 1:1 with teams weekly and staying in close contact throughout to ensure they are deeply supported with the coaching, resources, and introductions they need.
- Collaborate with Convergent Research’s Head of Programs to refine and deliver programming to train participants in proposing and launching a FRO, including workshops, group working sessions and lab meetings, and community dinners.
- Work with every team to help refine and pitch their FRO proposal (both technically and operationally), connecting them to resources and contacts as needed. This includes working with the FRO Residency Program Manager to support participants in organizing their roadmapping workshops, coordinating a peer review process with a panel of scientific experts, and preparing for pitch day.
About you
- A former founder, CEO or executive at a deep tech startup, science institute or major research initiative or is an experienced funder of and advisor to these types of projects
- Have a deep understanding of and ability to move coordinated research projects from ideation to launch to scale
- Have deep technical knowledge in a scientific or engineering field - or can understand and work with deep technical concepts
- Have experience leading high performance technical teams and successfully building products for scientists, including tools and datasets
- Have high founder empathy and good people intuition
- Have an extensive network across academic, for profit and non profit scientific research, with the ability to connect founders to the resources they need
- Focused on maximizing impact over profit, has debated the merits of venture capital as a funding mechanism for early stage hardtech and is familiar with and is supportive of a broad range of models for bringing technology to market
Convergent Research aims to help fill a structural gap in today's RD system. We enable fundamental research that requires unusual levels of scale and coordination yet is not rapidly monetizable by industry. We’re bringing together top talent from academia, industry, and startups to build a new model for innovative RD.
At Convergent Research, we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We believe in hiring individuals based on their unique talents, not on race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law or our company policies. We are more than a proud Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Our goal is to foster a healthy, safe, and respectful environment where all employees are valued and treated with dignity. Harassment of any kind is not tolerated here. #remote-LI
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