Research Projects Portfolio Administrator

This role provides administrative support to the College of Social Sciences' (CoSS) post-award research support function led by the Head of Operations, Research and Knowledge Transfer (RKT).

The role will provide excellent research support throughout the College across a broad range of activities including support to funded research projects, assisting with REF preparations under the strategic direction of the Head of Operations, RKT, and project and administrative support to the Director of Research. The post holder will be a key conduit between academic and professional services colleagues within the College and the wider institution.

The post holder will be responsible, as part of a small team, for delivering agreed services to an excellent level to Principal Investigators (PIs) and will be an active participant in establishing the new function across the College. Activities will range from responding to queries relating to particular funded projects, liaising with other College and University services to resolve queries, through to supporting colleagues in the use of the PURE Research Information System in support of REF preparations. The balance in focus of these activities is likely to be adjusted according to the needs of Schools throughout the year and therefore a flexible and pragmatic approach will be required.

Main Duties – Administrative Support:
- Resolving a wide range of queries from colleagues across the College relating to post-award research support
- Signposting more complex queries as appropriate
- Building strong and effective networks, in particular with colleagues in RSSD (Pre Award and Post Award), School Business Operations Teams, HR, Finance, and Procurement
- Budget monitoring and reporting to PIs
- Supporting and progressing recruitment and contract extension cases for research funded posts
- Co-ordinating and arranging project meetings
- Processing expense claims linked to funded projects
- Booking travel and accommodation
- Providing administrative support for events within funded projects

REF Support for College and Schools:
- Support to Academic colleagues for the REF process, including using systems and data collection
- Supporting the sharing of good practice and collating information to support the People, Culture, and Environment (PCE) narrative
- Developing and monitoring a timetable of REF preparation activities within Schools
- Communicating key deadlines, ensuring consistency of message across the College

Project Support for the College:
- Administrative support to the College Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee, REF SIG, and ROMAG as required
- Providing administrative support to the College Director of Research and Head of Operations (RKT) to deliver key projects as part of the College's overall objectives for developing Professional Services support to Research

The postholder will be expected to work flexibly across the College, which could mean being assigned to particular Schools within the College and working in different office locations across the Edgbaston campus.

Essential Requirements:
- Educated to at least A level or equivalent relevant experience with a minimum of GCSE grade C or above in Maths and English
- Ability to work flexibly and proactively with colleagues, ensuring that key peaks in workload and priority deadlines are met
- Experience in setting up and developing administrative systems to support excellent service delivery
- Experience of budget monitoring
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop effective working relationships with all levels of staff and external contacts
- Excellent IT skills including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook with the ability to create, maintain and manipulate spreadsheets and databases
- Ability to work independently and accurately with minimal supervision
- Able to demonstrate ability to work on several tasks simultaneously and creatively solve problems using own initiative
- Ability to identify, develop and implement improvements to administrative practices and procedures on an ongoing basis
- Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010

Desirable Requirements:
- Experience within a Research support role (e.g. professional services support to REF, research finance, post award administration, PGR)
- Experience in the use of the PURE Research Information System
- Experience of supporting research in a discipline relevant to the College

Benefits:
- 40 days paid holiday per year
- One paid day per year for volunteering
- Occupational sick pay
- Pension scheme
- Three high quality subsidised day nurseries
- Access to state-of-the-art sports centre with pool
- Birmingham Professional development programme
- Flexible working arrangements available