Position Details

College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,348 to £43,155 with potential progression once in post to £45,737

Grade 7

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to June 2024

Closing date: 25th May 2023

This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

To provide expertise to our researchers to assist them in managing their live awards, through our College-based Research Projects function, working closely with the Research Projects Manager, and in collaboration with colleagues in the Research Strategy and Services Division, College Finance and Planning Partners, and the School Operations Managers, to ensure alignment and effective working relationships.

Provide a ‘one stop shop’ for resolving or signposting queries from a range of stakeholders in respect of all live research project activities.

Maintain excellent working relationships with key partners including Finance, HR and Procurement to ensure alignment of process and ability to resolve queries and plan services effectively.

Assist the Research Projects Manager in monitoring and reviewing the performance of the function to ensure that it is efficient and effective and aligns with College and University expectations as well as those of the academic community.

Main Duties

• Provide a first point of contact source of expertise to Principal Investigators (Pls) for the lifecycle of their projects, from setting up and managing their project(s), milestone tracking and reporting through to co-ordination of project closure activity.
• Deal with more complex queries, for example recruitment and contract extensions for grant funded posts, and being a key conduit between the Pl, HR and Finance.
• Oversee procurement processes on research grants and ensuring University policies are adhered to.
• Ensure Pl's have access to timely and accurate budget reports and supporting their interpretation of these where appropriate.
• Collaborate with the College Research Support Office (pre-award) to coordinate tenders to funders, from supporting the development of applications to managing the approval of contracts.
• Support the Research Projects Manager in proactively seeking and responding to feedback on the service provided with a view to continuous service improvement.
• Support the Director of Operations, Deputy Director of Operations (Research and Knowledge Transfer) and Director of Research on College-wide initiatives.
• Manage workloads flexibly to deliver against priorities of the team and the needs of the researchers.
• Work with the Research Projects Manager to develop, organise and deliver workshops and training sessions for academics on research related issues.
• Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential

• Educated to first degree level (or equivalent) or equivalent relevant experience.
• Experience within a research support role in a higher education setting (for example professional services support to REF, research finance, post-award administration, PGR).
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trusted networks quickly and effectively and to have credibility with senior managers, academics and colleagues at all levels across the College.
• Excellent written communication skills and the ability to produce a variety of documentation for a range of audiences.
• An ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities such as a managing a diverse workload in a deadline-driven environment.
• Experience in identifying and escalating risks to the delivery of a project.
• Creative attitude and problem-solving skills, in response in being part of a new function.
• Experience of identifying opportunities for improvement to processes/systems.
• Excellent analytical skills (financial, situational and organisational) with an ability to analyse complex information and present conclusions clearly and concisely to facilitate decision-making.
• Proven commitment to the delivery of exceptional customer service.
• Able to apply a significant amount of initiative and professional, independent judgement.
• Experience of promoting knowledge sharing 1:1 or through training and events, in response to researcher needs.

Desirable

• Educated to PhD level in a subject related to the College.
• Experience of supporting research in a discipline relevant to the College.
• Experience of negotiating research contracts and supporting research tenders.
• Evidenced achievements in assisting the establishment of a new team or function.
• Substantial project management experience, preferably using project tools such as Prince 2.
• Supervisory or management experience, with the ability to motivate and manage performance of individuals.
• Be an active member of ARMA or other relevant learned society.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day-to-day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Dimensions

The role will manage one or more projects across a School, College, or professional service area.
The role may manage the budget for the project.

Planning and Organising

The role manages a portfolio of projects which may vary in length from short term (under a year) to longer term (typically 1-3 years). They need to forward plan, evaluate and review progress, problem-solve, reporting to internal and possibly external stakeholders, and manage self and as appropriate others to deliver project outcomes and improvement to services.

Problem Solving and decision making

The role will take the day-to-day operational decisions, assessing and escalating risks, relating to the delivery of research projects, and will support PIs, Heads of Schools and Heads of Research, and School Operations Managers in reaching informed decisions about the project delivery.

Internal and External relationships

The role is a key liaison and co-ordination role on specific project(s), so will have a range of internal and potentially external stakeholders.

• Internal members of the School and College (to include PIs, School Heads of Research and Heads of School, and School Operations Managers;
• External stakeholders such as funders;
• PI, co-I and Team members;
• Other Professional Services colleagues, such as the Research Strategy and Services Division, Finance, HR etc.
  

Informal enquires to Tamara Jordan, email: t.c.jordan@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working .