Communications Lead - European Environmental Projects

JOB TITLE:  Communications Lead - European Environmental Projects  

RESPONSIBLE FOR:  Managing communications activities and creating written, visual and digital content for European environmental research projects.  

TIME/DURATION:  37 hours per week 

CONTRACT: 18-month FTC (with potential extension) 

LOCATION:  Based in Manchester with the opportunity to work from home. You may occasionally be required to travel to meetings around the UK and in Europe. 

SALARY:  £45,000 - £55,000 per annum  

CLOSING DATE: Friday 3rd July 2026 at 5pm

BACKGROUND 

Countryscape is a multi-disciplinary company, combining the creative skills of a communications agency with the scientific knowledge of an environmental consultancy.  

Countryscape is also a partner in Oppla, a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands, with a mission to support open knowledge for a healthy planet. Oppla has grown to become the world’s largest online community dedicated to nature-based solutions and the Oppla team manages the communications for several large scientific research projects funded by the EU Horizon programme.  

In this role you will be working on two of such projects: A-Track and CircHive. These projects focus on supporting business, the finance sector, and policymakers to take nature-positive action by increasing awareness and understanding of approaches such as natural capital accounting and life-cycle assessment. The projects aim to make transformative change in business, finance and policy to support the achievement of nature-positive. 

The role will maximise the impact of these projects by ensuring that project outputs are clearly communicated, widely shared, easy to access and used by project partners and external audiences. The role will have a particular focus on securing a legacy for project outputs beyond the end of the projects through knowledge sharing, product development and commercialisation. 

The postholder will work closely with project partners, internal colleagues, designers, software engineers and landscape experts to develop strategic communication plans and translate complex research and project outputs into clear, engaging and practical communications and tools. 

The successful candidate will be expected to take ownership of project communications, translating project goals into proactive communication plans, activities and campaigns with support from senior colleagues. 

WHO WE ARE  

We’re a small but growing team united by a passion for making a real difference for our planet. 

We all take ownership of our work, shaping it to fit our own unique skills, expertise and ways of  

working. We value diversity among people and perspectives and have a culture where we listen  

carefully and speak openly to one another. 

This role is ideal for someone open-minded, eager to learn from others, and ready to approach  

challenges with creativity and positivity. The right person will be genuinely self-starting, proactive and confident managing their own time, workload and tasks independently. 

This role is based at our Manchester office with home working several days a week once you have settled into the role. 

The diversity of our workforce is important to us, and we encourage applications from all  

backgrounds and identities. We also encourage applications from candidates who may not meet every requirement but have relevant skills, experience, and a willingness to learn. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

Strategic communications 

• Identify, develop and implement communication and dissemination opportunities that increase project visibility and impact. 
• Maintain and update project dissemination, exploitation and communication plans, anticipating upcoming project milestones, outputs and opportunities. 
• Identify target audiences and develop approaches to engage them. Audiences include research and innovation communities, policymakers, businesses, financial institutions, public authorities, civil society organisations, and wider public audiences relevant to project objectives. 
• Identify new audiences, channels, formats and approaches to improve communication, dissemination and exploitation of project outputs. 
• Analyse communication performance metrics and analytics and make recommendations to improve impact. 

Project liaison and representation 

• Act as the first point of contact for internal and external project communication requests. 
• Represent the organisation professionally in project meetings and partner discussions.  
• Prepare updates, reports and progress information for senior colleagues and project partners. 

Coordination and oversight 

• Lead the planning, scheduling and management of project communications tasks. 
• Coordinate communication and dissemination activity across project partners. 
• Proactively identify project innovations, outputs, events and achievements that could be communication opportunities, and develop communication campaigns around them. 
• Identify and action strategic outreach opportunities such as conference speaking engagements and media opportunities. 
• Monitor, flag and mitigate project communication risks. 
• Ensure consistency, quality and tone of all communication materials.  

Communications materials 

• Review, organise, summarise and raise awareness of project research, reports, case studies, training materials and other resources. 
• Produce, edit and proofread written content for various channels including blogs, video scripts and social media posts.  
• Create or coordinate the development of visual content including graphics and video materials.  
• Develop, update and manage website content including news, blogs, events, project resources and case studies. 
• Prepare communication toolkits and materials for use by partner organisations.  
• Organise, promote and manage the technical aspects of webinars. 
• Create, distribute and monitor email newsletters.  

The successful candidate will have: 

• Strong experience in communications, dissemination, content creation and campaign delivery. 
• Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills. 
• Experience of making complex research, policy or technical information clear and engaging. 
• Good project management and organisational skills. 
• Experience working with and presenting ideas to business leaders. 
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders, partners or project teams. 
• Strong attention to detail and ability to manage information accurately. 
• Confidence working with websites, digital content and communication channels. 
• An interest in nature-positive business, sustainability, biodiversity, natural capital, policy or finance. 

Desirable experience 

• Experience working on European, Horizon Europe or other multi-partner funded projects. 
• Experience communicating sustainability, biodiversity, environmental or scientific topics to business audiences. 
• Experience developing or delivering dissemination, exploitation and communication plans. 
• Experience managing project brands, templates, websites or digital platforms. 
• Experience in knowledge management, learning resource development or content libraries. 
• Experience facilitating workshops, webinars or stakeholder engagement sessions. 
• Understanding of biodiversity, natural capital or nature-related decision-making. 
• Additional European language skills. 

Qualifications 

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience. 

Personal qualities 

• Clear and confident communicator. 
• Highly organised and proactive. 
• Able to work across multiple partners and priorities. 
• Curious and quick to understand technical subject matter. 
• Collaborative and comfortable working with specialists. 
• Creative, accurate and detail-focused. 
• Able to balance strategic planning with practical delivery.