Director: Research Unit

Director: Research Unit

4-year contract, full-time 

Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care 

Faculty of Health Sciences

The University of Cape Town (UCT) invites applications for the full-time position (4-year contract) of Research Director within the Department of Family, Community, and Emergency Care (FaCE). This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and experienced academic leader to establish and develop the FaCE Research Unit, including the co-development of a socially engaged research agenda.

The Department of FaCE is a newly established department comprising the clinical specialist divisions of Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Palliative Care, Sports and Exercise Medicine, and a Primary Health Care team.

The position provides strategic research leadership in FaCE. In establishing the FaCE Research Unit, the director will oversee the development of the unit's strategic and research direction, manage staff, budget, and operations, secure research funding, and assist other researchers with grant applications. The role involves collaborating with stakeholders and disseminating findings to academic and community audiences to promote impactful, evidence-based solutions that are contextually responsive and socially accountable.

Requirements

• PhD in a field relevant to primary health care (e.g. biomedical, clinical, rehabilitation or social sciences)
• Demonstrable experience in research supervision at master's and doctoral levels.
• A strong publication record in peer-reviewed journals as lead or senior author.
• Demonstrable experience in securing and managing external research grants or funds.
• Demonstrable experience and knowledge of research ethics, regulations and governance in health research
• Strong mentorship and research training skills.
• Ability to engage effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Proficiency in research software (e.g., NVivo, SPSS, Stata, R).
• Strong leadership, team-building, and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent academic writing and communication abilities.
• Familiarity with the South African healthcare and research landscape.
• Knowledge of community-oriented primary care models.
• Understanding of higher education and postgraduate research supervision frameworks.
• Ability to travel to project sites.

Advantages

• Experience in co-ordinating staff development activities
• Played a role in initiating and sustaining national, continental or global research networks
• Ability to work with a variety of research methodologies (spanning qualitative and quantitative)
• Experience in translating research strategy to implementation
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation
• Multilingual language proficiency for Western Cape

Responsibilities

• Teaching and learning within the research environment. This may take the form of supervising masters or doctoral students, mentoring supervisors, co-ordinating faculty development initiatives, or creating opportunities for junior researchers to learn experientially.
• Conducting, leading and co-ordinating research projects within the department. They will also contribute to the development, adaptation and implementation of a departmental research strategy, including the procurement of external funding to sustain this strategy.
• Contribute to the leadership of the department by leading the development of the departmental research unit. The incumbent will be required to directly line-manage research staff, resources and budgets.
• Contribute to the production of socially accountable, impactful work within the research space. This would include ensuring that the departmental transformation commitments are met, authentic and equitable relationships are established and maintained with community groups, research dissemination facilitates optimal social impact, and represent UCT and FaCE at appropriate external forums.

The incumbent will report to the head of the department, will be a member of the departmental executive committee, and will work closely with department members (including a departmental research unit advisory committee) as well as several partners and stakeholders within and outside UCT.

For detailed information on this post, please view the job description on the following link: (link to be added)

The academic level of appointment will be made in alignment with the candidate's current position, level of experience as well as the Faculty's expectations for performance at each academic rank. The annual remuneration package, including benefits, will be in line with the standard academic salary package at the appropriate level.

Senior Lecturer: between R and R

Associate Professor: between R and R

To apply, click the "apply" button to create a candidate profile and to submit your application.

Please complete/attach the following to your profile before submitting your application:

• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Motivational letter that speaks to the requirements of the position
• Proof or professional registration
• Three referee names which must include their title and name, position details, relationship to you, their e-mail address and telephone number.
• Highest qualification
• ID/Passport

An application which does not comply with the above requirements will be regarded as incomplete.

Shortlisted candidates may be required to undergo competency and pre-placement-medical assessments.  References may be requested by UCT at any stage of the selection process.

Any enquiries about the application process are to be addressed to Ms Tracy Moore at or

Closing date: November 2025

Faculty website:

Reference number:    ID1183

UCT is a designated employer and is committed to the pursuit of excellence, diversity and redress in achieving its equity targets in accordance with the Employment Equity Plan of the University and its Employment Equity goals and targets. Preference will be given to candidates from the under-represented designated groups. Our Employment Equity Policy is available at

UCT reserves the right not to appoint.