Job information pack

Grants officer

Moorfields Eye Charity, 27 Provost Street, London

N1 7NH

Tel: 0207 566 2565

Email: moorfields.eyecharity@nhs.net

moorfieldseyecharity.org.uk

Registered Charity No 1140679

moorfieldseyecharitylondon

@eyecharity

moorfields_eye_charity

December 2025

Welcome

Thank you for your interest in the work of Moorfields Eye Charity.  We believe that people’s sight
matters  and  wish  to  strengthen  our  committed  and  passionate  staff  team  by  appointing  a  grants
officer to our grants and research team.

We are the main fundraising and grant-making charity for Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation
Trust (Moorfields) and its academic partner UCL (in particular the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), two
world-leading institutions.

The majority of our support funds innovation and research into eye health, and we have an emphasis
on building capacity and developing the careers of researchers and clinicians.

We’ve invested in pioneering research including a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye, harnessing
artificial intelligence for eye health (such as using deep learning to classify clinical images of common
eye disease), and innovation in services and patient experience improvement through remote
monitoring and telemedicine.

We have ambitious plans. We have put into action a five-year business plan that is supporting our
growth from raising and funding around £6 million annually to commit at least £50 million over five
years.

This is an exciting opportunity for a grants officer to bring enthusiasm and experience to our dedicated
team, following robust and effective processes to select and award the most impactful projects and
programmes, and collaborating with a number of varied stakeholders.

We both joined Moorfields Eye Charity because we are passionate about eye health and wanted to
support the pioneering work of the world-leading partnership between Moorfields and UCL. The years
ahead will be a time of exciting transformation for our charity as we play a pivotal role in creating
Oriel, embed a culture of philanthropy across the Moorfields family, increase our fundraising and
grant-making, deliver our ambitious strategy and make a difference to people living with sight loss.

We hope you are as excited as we are by the opportunity to play a key role in that journey and thank
you for your interest in joining our team.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Robert Dufton

Chief executive

Dr Ailish Murray PhD

Director of grants and research

Key information

Hours:

Probation period:

Full time (37.5 hours per week)

6 months

Notice period:

3 months

Place of work:
Provost Street N1, with flexibility to work part of
the week from home (agreed for each post
individually, depending on the nature of the role)

Contract type:

Permanent

Salary:

£41,445 to £48,352

Annual leave entitlement:

27 days plus bank holidays, increasing after
5 years and 10 years service

Reports to:
Funding manager

About the role

Impact report, 2025

The grants officer position at Moorfields Eye Charity is an exciting
and varied one.  It is a great opportunity to join a growing and
supportive team who are committed to ensuring the charity has
robust grant-making mechanisms to determine best use of
charitable funding together with monitoring and evaluating
projects and programmes.

Our close proximity, and working relationships, with Moorfields
Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Moorfields) and its academic
partner UCL (in particular the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) are
very important to this role.  A successful candidate will enjoy
working with academics, clinicians and other hospital staff,
supporting their engagement with, and applications to, our funding
programmes.

You will support the entire grant management life cycle, both pre
and post award, of a very diverse and growing grant portfolio. We
have a number of grant-making programmes, which you as grants
officer will be central in helping deliver.  This includes our response
mode grant-making and philanthropy supported activities which
together are focused on investing in world-leading eye research,
education and care to transform the lives of people with sight
problems.

To showcase our work and impact of our funding you will draw on
your knowledge of the grant funding portfolio.  With an
enthusiastic interest in dissemination of knowledge to diverse
audiences, you will contribute to the communication of funding
outcomes and the evaluation of impact across the charity’s priority
areas.

This is a highly collaborative role that will require you to work
independently and confidently while developing important
relationships at all levels across the charity, Moorfields, UCL, and
with key external stakeholders.

£

£22.5 million
income raised

1,052 Eye to Eye
participants

£58.9 million
committed in awards

Role description

Grant funding

›  Be a primary point of contact to applicants and other stakeholders throughout the grant

management process and ensure queries are dealt with in a professional, timely and satisfactory
manner.

› Process expressions of interest and applications, including undertaking eligibility checks and

performing cost challenge.

› Maintain up-to-date and accurate grant records within relevant systems.

› Carry out selection of high quality peer reviewers and assess the quality of reports to ensure they

are suitable for consideration by decision-making committees.

› Support the funding manager in the delivery of drop-in advice sessions, including drafting content

for website and social channels to advertise funding opportunities and provide guidance to
applicants.

› Prepare grant applications and support the development of briefing documents for the charity’s
scientific advisory panel and grants committee (who report to Moorfields Eye Charity board of
trustees) or other relevant committees.

› Be responsible for preparing and communicating feedback to applicants on funding proposals

following decision making and following up on any related actions.

› Liaise with and support the fundraising team’s development of funding proposals, cases for support

and grant progress reporting.

Finance

›  Monitor financial expenditure on grants against awarded budgets including working with the grant

holders and charity and host institution finance teams.

› Ensure timely and accurate allocation of restricted donations to grants.

› Maintain accurate and up-to-date records and processing of invoices.

› Support the funding manager and director of grants and research in financial reconciliation and

reporting.

Communications

›  Be a point of contact for the development of content for multimedia channels including liaising with

grant holders, their teams and other stakeholders.

› Provide ideas and draft content from the grant portfolio for publications such as our annual impact

report.

› Support the fundraising team’s supporter stewardship by providing content for communications to
donors on eye health, education, research, patient care, innovation and related areas of interest.

› Contribute to and support the update of grants and research related sections of the charity’s

website.

Grant monitoring and impact

›  Support the post-award monitoring of grants awarded by the charity. This includes monitoring own
portfolio of grants, raising and resolving concerns, ensuring compliance with funding conditions and
supporting the evaluation of grants.

› Develop and produce reports, undertake analysis of outcomes and outputs arising from charity

funded projects.

› Request and process interim, end of grant reports and programmatic reports.

› Support the implementation of the charity’s impact framework.

Grants and research team

›  Maintain highly accurate records within grants management systems (Flexigrant) and any other

databases used.

› Support grants and research team colleagues, providing cover as necessary. This includes working

closely to ensure shared awareness of grants, activities and deadlines related to each other’s portfolio
of grants.

› Maintain an awareness of the external eye health environment and funding landscape.

› Build and maintain strong positive relationships with the academic, administrative and clinical staff at

Moorfields and UCL.

Other duties

›  Any other duties as may be requested from time to time by your line manager.

› Ensure that all activities are compliant with law, best practice and the charity’s policies and

procedures.

› Occasional evening and weekend work as required.

› Ensure that you treat everyone with dignity and respect and adhere to, and champion, the charity’s

EDI policy and values.

› As a member of the charity team to conduct your work and self to a high standard of professionalism

and timeliness, being responsible and polite with all stakeholders.  To be collaborative with, and
considerate and supportive of colleagues as we work together to meet the common goal of delivering
the charity’s strategy to maximum impact.

A role description is a reflection of the current position and may
change emphasis or detail in light of subsequent developments
as the charity is a fast-paced environment. Duties may change
from time to time, in consultation with the post holder.

The person

Every role at Moorfields Eye Charity helps ensure
our success and there are certain skills necessary to
support this.

We’re looking for someone who has the following
experience or demonstrable transferable skills:

Education, qualifications

› A degree in biomedical sciences, other STEM or health subject.

› A postgraduate or advanced research degree (PhD) in biomedical sciences/health subject or

equivalent relevant work experience.

Knowledge

› Experience of the research environment in an academic or clinical setting.

› An understanding of the research application process and peer review in a grant-making charity.

› Proven ability to write engaging copy for different audiences across varied communication channels.

Skills

› Excellent written and oral communication skills.

› Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.

› Effective organisational skills and ability to manage time and prioritise work.

› Ability to work independently, quickly and effectively under pressure.

› Working to deadlines and prioritising work.

› Excellent IT skills including Microsoft Word, Excel and Adobe Acrobat.

Personal qualities

› Keen interest in research, grant-making and administration.

› Ability to build confident working relationships at all levels.

› Self-motivated, pro-active and solutions focused, with ability to work on own initiative and to provide

recommendations.

› Personable, with interpersonal manner and ability to engage stakeholders.

› Trustworthy, reliable and demonstrable discretion.

› Able to network and liaise with scientific, clinical and research communities.

› Willing to be part of a busy, friendly team often working to overlapping deadlines.

The following criteria would be desirable.

› Grants management experience, including peer-review in a grant-making organisation (ideally a

medical research charity).

› Engaging with and supporting grant applicants, providing expert advice on remit and eligibility on

behalf of the grant-making organisation.

› Supporting high level committees/boards.

› An understanding of the charity sector and its regulation.

› Experience in reviewing grant expenditure against awarded budgets.

› Awareness of the UK medical and research environment, the role of the AMRC.

› Experience of grant-making supported by restricted philanthropic donations.

› Use of a grant management system and/or CRM database for both maintenance and interrogation

purposes.

› An understanding of research and grant funding into an NHS environment.

Professional development

We’re committed to your continuing learning and development.  All of our
team have personal learning and development plans in place that are reviewed,
discussed and developed on a regular basis throughout the year.  As a charity, we
ensure that the time, resources and assistance are set aside to support you and
maximise your potential and growth.

How to apply

Find out more here. The closing date for applications is 13.00 (GMT) on Monday
19 January 2026.

Your application should include your CV and a supporting statement (up to 500 words in total) which
addresses the following points:

›  What attracts you to this role and Moorfields Eye Charity?

› How your experience applies to the role

If you think you could do the role, but don’t have all the desirable experience, we would still welcome an
application from you.

If you would like to discuss this opportunity further or have any questions about the role, please contact
Ailish Murray at ailish.murray1@nhs.net

Final shortlisted candidate(s) will normally have the opportunity to meet members of the team or wider
organisation.

Interviews are expected to be held, ideally in person, between 2 and 13 February 2026.