The posting
Job Title: SPM – Government Policy and Programs
Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology
Background
We live in a world of fast-paced innovation today, driven by exponential progress in science and technology (S&T) and the growth of vibrant ecosystems to commercialize research. India must aspire to be a top 3 S&T Nation, where the first two places are occupied by US and China today. To do so, India needs to be at the forefront of research: the creation of new knowledge (research) and its translation to economic and social goods. This is imperative for long-term industry differentiation and competitiveness, National security, and self-reliance to attain our socio-economic goals.
The time for India to revive its S&T agenda is now or never. We have the economic size, the talent pool, a large market size and a vibrant startup ecosystem to both invest in research and be able to translate S&T knowledge into economic value. For India to be a global leader, exponential S&T growth needs to go hand-in-hand with economic growth and social progress.
While the West has traditionally dominated global S&T, many Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan have made rapid progress in the past, and China has dramatically scaled its S&T prowess to become #2 in the world behind USA. India's Contribution is relatively dwarfed - its high impact research output is ranked 1oth, with US & China being the top 2, no Indian university shows up in top 100 research rankings, with just 1 company in world's top 50 innovative companies.
Way of Work
The Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST India) is a non-profit institution of excellence dedicated to catalyse India's journey to a top 3 S&T Nation. We identify that the major stakeholders for S&T include the government, the research institutions and the industry. There are systemic challenges with how these actors today work, such as size of ambition, right incentives, resource allocation and efficiency. Our way of working is to identify these challenges, develop and vigorously advocate policy solutions and best practices to address them. We also identify high-leverage projects that can have an outsized impact on the ecosystem, and run programs with stakeholders, where we lend our team of experts, to make sure best practices are used and the program is impactful. At maturity, we see the ecosystem develop the virtuous cycle of research funding, new breakthrough research, translation into economic value, and re-investment. While we build the
ecosystem, we also look forward to build a strong narrative of S&T leadership in India and create political salience around it.
In a short period of time, FAST has started engagements with the Office of PSA (Govt of India), Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Capacity Building Commission of India and Banaras Hindu University, among others.
Our projects span easing procurement for scientists, re-envisaging government and industry financing of research, fixing institutional grant management process, shaping sectoral missions, simplifying government procurement etc. Our current body of work includes partnerships with Niti Ayog on driving measures for ease of doing science, initiatives on industry academia collaboration , thought leadership on Research Linked Incentives, and operationalising R&D Hub spoke models to accelerate India's R&D impact.
At Department of Science and Technology, FAST has co partnered on shaping and operationalising Anusandhaan National Research Fund and Research Development and Innovation Fund
FAST has conducted a state of sector report on Industrial R&D benchmarking Indian industry players across six sectors and comparison versus global peers while highlighting opportunities to increase R&D intensity, and patent, publications outcomes.
FAST's current efforts include understanding the R&D landscape of the pharmaceutical sector in India and highlighting opportunities to accelerate innovation through various policy interventions. FAST is leading efforts to increase industry participation in R&D, and finding pathways to improving the research translational effectiveness at our institutions. We have produced multiple succinct policy briefs for the governmental and institutional sector.
We also run India's largest non-profit science festival in India called the India Science Fest, which has seen an audience of 50,000 people over the last three years. We also support and co-ordinate a Science Book Fellowship to spur public science books in India.
Leadership
FAST India is founded by Varun Aggarwal, who is a successful entrepreneur and researcher, and Ashish Dhawan, a private equity investor turned philanthropist. Varun built and sold India's largest job assessment company, Aspiring Minds and wrote a book on the science ecosystem of India. Ashish Dhawan is the chairperson of Ashoka University, a leading liberal arts university in India, and Central Square Foundation, and is passionate about promoting science in India.
FAST's advisory board is chaired by Prof.Tarun Khanna, the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professort at the Harvard Business School. The advisory board includes Prof VijayRaghavan ( Ex Principal Scientific Advisor), Ramesh Mangaleswran ( Ex Mckinsey), Saurabh Srivastava ( Ex Chairman Nasscom ), Dr Soumya Swaminathan(ex World Health Organisation), Dr Ramgopal Rao( Group Vice Chancellor BIT Pilani), Thomas Barlow, Shantanu Rastogi( MD General Atlantic Partners India). FAST's advisory council includes Sanjay Sarma, Dr. Swaminathan Sivaram (IISER), Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Harvard
Univ), Kris Gopalakrishnan, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Ajay Mehta, Abhishek Goel, Vijay Chandru (IISc), Samir K. Brahmachari and Gagandeep Kang.
Pre-reading
Varun's talk on his book explaining India's S&T ecosystem and the need for change
Keynote Remarks and Panel Discussion at India Science Fest about why India needs to invigorate its S&T ecosystem Policy and best practices briefs by FAST
Responsibilities
FAST India is looking for a Senior Program Manager to support its government policy and program engagements at a pivotal moment in our growth. This role will be central to advancing India's position at the forefront of global innovation by sustaining partnerships with government bodies like Niti Aayog, Department of Science and Technology, ANRF etc and supporting the policy design and implementation efforts of identified policies and programs. Reporting to the CEO- FAST, and working closely with the FAST leadership team, the candidate would drive research work to identify policy interventions to accelerate India's innovation effort and their implementation of agreed actions through PMU resources aligned and deployed with the government bodies. Following are the responsibilities of the candidate:
The key responsibilities of the SPM (Policy Reforms) include, but are not limited to:
1. Provide analytical depth in policy intervention design and develop their execution plans.
The Senior Program Manager will collaborate with partners to iteratively design, develop, and frame decision options that resolve challenges in science, technology, and innovation strategy. The SPM will help design operational interventions that can catalyse and accelerate Indian STI ecosystems.
The SPM will support the leadership team with research and insight, recommending an appropriate approach for diverse policy questions.
2. Build and Sustain Partnerships
The Senior Program Manager will develop a strong partnership with government organisations.
3. Government Interface
He/she would be a key interface with the government organisations like Niti Aayog, ANRF, State Departments or Line Ministries where the PMU has been deployed, and manage the program implementation
4. Project and Program Management
The Senior Program Manager would develop a clear roadmap for implementation and execution of agreed deliverables with the government. This would include development of project plan/workplans, and KPI's for the agreed scope of work
5. Program Monitoring, Reporting and Control
He/She would develop appropriate metrics, and dashboards and publish periodic reports and updates on the PMU progress, to the FAST and Government team members
6. Opportunity Identification and feedback to shape priorities He/she would identify additional opportunities through the PMU to help further FAST's goals of increasing R&D impact in the country.
7. Governance and Compliance
The Senior Program Manager would ensure adherence to government protocols and legal frameworks
8. Arrange Policy briefs, organise roundtables etc
The Senior Program Manager would prepare background analytics and policy briefs for policy roundtables, conferences, summits, workshops etc as needed to
Working closely with FAST India's leadership, the Senior Program Manager will help expand the organisation's capabilities and influence, playing a key role in shaping programs, partnerships, and the narrative that positions FAST India as the go-to institution for enhancing R&D in the country.
Skills and Competencies Required:
1. Ability to Provide Analytical depth to shape policy interventions and recommendations
Should have strong analytical capability and mature thinking to determine appropriate policy recommendations that can accelerate innovation impact
2. Ability to build partnerships
Ability to forge and manage partnerships with government leaders.
2. Ability to understand policy Strategic Acumen and Analytical skills
Understand the national Science and Technology policies, government programs Should be able to identify and prioritise the opportunities to support the government efforts in line with the national needs and FAST's vision and plans
3. Strategic Acumen
Should be able to identify and prioritise the opportunities to support the government efforts in line with the national needs and FAST's vision and plans
4. Project Management and Program Execution
Ability to organize team, establish clear work plans, KPI's and metrics. The candidate must be able to actively manage the overall project and PMU deployed to ensure successful completion of agreed deliverables
5. Organisational Leadership -Ability to lead team remotely
Candidate should be able to supervise, and guide remotely deployed PMU's. He/she must be able to develop the team members, and ensure they are well supported through the deployment efforts
6. Stakeholder Liaisoning & Management
Candidate must be able to work with government stakeholders and manage the overall relationship while ensuring team delivers on agreed outcomes. Candidate would show maturity and decision making as needed for the same.
7. Communication
Clear, persuasive communicator in both written and spoken formats and excellent powerpoint skills
8. Personal qualities
Mission-driven, result oriented mindset, with high integrity and resilience in complex stakeholder environments.
Who you are:
1. You are a graduate in STEM, Economics, Management or Public Policy and have a clear passion for science and technology.
2. You have excellent analytical, critical thinking, planning and organisational skills with high attention to details.
3. You bring 6+ years' experience in government , academia, corporates or government, preferably working closely with the S&T ecosystem.
4. You're an inspirational leader with strong strategic and operational skills, able to energize teams and deliver results.
5. You are comfortable with collaborating with multiple stakeholders , and driving alignment.
6. You thrive in building credible and trusted relationships.
7. You have high intellectual vitality with desire to engage in variety of topics and willingness to learn.
