International and Institutional Liaison Officer

The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (F.S.P.) (CNIC) has been conceived to develop research of excellence, competitive and of international relevance in relation to cardiovascular diseases. The CNIC has a research center of 24,000 m², located in Madrid, with more than 6,000 m² for laboratories equipped with a state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment.

The CNIC is creating a new senior-level position to address a strategic organisational need, the management and integration of the scientific strategies that cut across the Centre's research structure and underpin its institutional positioning.

The International and Institutional Liaison Officer is a newly established role, transversal in scope, conceived to operate at the interface of scientific leadership, institutional evaluation, international scientific development, and research dissemination.

This position is designed to evolve in scope and responsibility alongside the Centre's strategic agenda, from the preparation of evidence for evaluation bodies and the management of flagship excellence programmes, to the development of international research alliances and the definition of CNIC's scientific dissemination strategy. The role will act as a senior specialist supporting the Scientific Direction, providing analytical, strategic and operational capacity in areas that require both scientific credibility and institutional perspective.

The successful candidate will have a proven ability to navigate complex scientific environments, communicate research with authority to diverse audiences, and coordinate high-stakes institutional processes with rigour and autonomy.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

I. Institutional scientific evaluation and governance support

• Lead the preparation of scientific content, institutional narratives and supporting documentation for CNIC's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), including annual centre-wide evaluations and five-year reviews of Principal Investigators.

• Serve as the Centre's interlocutor with external evaluation bodies, ensuring that CNIC's research strategy, scientific outputs and societal impact are communicated with rigour and coherence.

• Develop analytical frameworks to monitor and synthesise scientific performance across research groups, providing the Scientific Direction with evidence-based inputs for strategic planning and governance decisions.

II. Strategic coordination of research excellence programmes

• Provide scientific oversight and strategic coordination of CNIC's flagship institutional programmes, including the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence grant, ensuring alignment between programme objectives and the Centre's overall research strategy.

• Lead the scientific monitoring, international reporting, and follow-up activities of European/international fellowship programme, ensuring scientific coherence, compliance with European Commission requirements, and visibility of the programme's research outcomes.

• Design and coordinate international joint calls and strategic partnership initiatives arising from excellence programmes, identifying prospective partner institutions and managing the scientific dimension of these collaborations.

• Identify and formalise new institutional collaborations with leading international research organisations, funding bodies, and scientific consortia in direct support of the Scientific Direction's international agenda.

III. Research dissemination strategy and institutional scientific communication

• In coordination with the CNIC’s Communication Department, define and manage CNIC's institutional research dissemination strategy, ensuring that the Centre's scientific output reaches specialist, policy, and public audiences in a manner consistent with its Severo Ochoa excellence positioning.

• Provide strategic and scientific guidance to research groups in the design and implementation of their own public engagement and dissemination activities.

• Represent CNIC in national and international scientific committees, evaluation panels, and research policy networks relevant to the Centre's strategic interests.

IV. Research programme management and institutional reporting

• Oversee the scientific and operational lifecycle of research programmes within the Centre's strategic portfolio, ensuring timely delivery of scientific milestones and full compliance with funder requirements.

• Lead the preparation of scientific progress reports, institutional activity reports, and documentation required by funding agencies, evaluation bodies, and governing organs.

• Ensure the scientific integrity of programme execution and contribute a senior scientific perspective to budget allocation and cost justification processes, in coordination with relevant administrative departments.

Mandatory requirements:

1. Hold a university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent)
2. Minimum of ten years’ experience in project management and organizing / coordinating dissemination activities within institutions in public or private institution (six years and eight months for disable people greater than 66% and eight years and four months for disable people greater than 33%)

Valuable requirements:

• C1. Expertise in the design, organization and coordination of outreach/dissemination/communication activities.
• C2. Expertise in communication in international environments.
• C3. Experience in the preparation, drafting, and layout of annual reports and other institutional documents.
• C5. Experience in travel, agenda, seminar, and meeting management.
• C6. Participation in committees.
• C7. Experience with office tools, database management, SAP systems, and telematic platforms (e.g., Teams, Zoom).
• C8. Experience in event coordination and fostering collaboration among users inside and outside the organization.
• C9. Interview.

Positive action: a correction index of 1.5 is established for each year of experience in the evaluation of the number of years in those criteria where experience is evaluated, in the event that the disable person greater than 66% and 1.2 in the event that the disable person greater than 33%.

We offer:

• A research position in a consolidated Research Centre of international scientific relevance.
• Access to state-of-the art infrastructures and advanced technologies.
• Integration into an excellent scientific environment.
• Immediate incorporation adaptable to the candidate circumstances
• “Contrato de duración indefinida” in accordance with “Tasa de reposición ordinaria autorizada por el Ministerio de Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública para 2026, según resolución de la Dirección General de la Función Pública. N/REF 260032. Resolución del 27 de marzo de 2026 (disposición adicional vigésima segunda de la Ley 31/2022, de 23 de diciembre, de Presupuestos Generales del Estado para el año 2023, prorrogados para el ejercicio 2026)”, as long as the selected candidate complies with the legal requirements for the formalization of the contract in accordance with the Spanish labor law.

Selection Plan

The RESOLUTION OF THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE FOR PUBLIC FUNCTION APPROVING THE COMMON ACTION CRITERIA FOR THE RECRUITMENT PROCESSES IN THE STATE PUBLIC SECTOR ENTITIES of April 11, 2022, set forth in point 6.1 that “Unless a specific regulation establishes a merit-bases recruitment system (concurso), the competition (concurso-oposición) must be the recruitment system”

In CNIC, the specific regulations approved by the Foundation's board of trustees establish a merit-based recruitment system (concurso) including a personal interview.

At least 3 candidates with the highest score (as long as they reach the minimum of 65 points as a sum of evaluation criteria C1-C8) will be interviewed. The candidate with the highest score will be hired given the total score (C1-C9) is higher than 75 points

Composition of the Selection Commission:

• Director in Basic Researh
• Research Office Coordinator
• Head of Scientific Management
• Research Office Assistant
• HR member

The CNIC is a center that advocates equal opportunities in access to employment for men and women, nationals and foreigners and for reasons of age, race or ethnicity, social origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, language, disability, political orientation or social or economic conditions. The maximum rigor will be guaranteed in the application of the principles of equality, merit and ability in access to public employment and of the current regulations on data protection.

By participating in the selection process, the participant accepts that their data appear in the public resolutions of the selection process. Such resolutions (provisional list of admitted and excluded, definitive list of admitted and excluded and resolution of the process) are published on the CNIC website.