School Research Support Manager- School of Computer Science

Position Details

Area: School of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322 with potential progression once in post to £42,792

Grade/Band: Grade 7

Hours: Full time

Duration: Fixed-term for up to 3 years

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Closing Date: 6 December 2020

BACKGROUND

The School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham has an established and growing international reputation for research and teaching in Computer Science. The School is a close knit community that enjoys a stimulating intellectual environment. Both in teaching and research, our staff and students address issues of importance to the scientific community, business world and government agencies.

The School Research Support Manager is a critical role for the School in facilitating excellent research support to academic colleagues from advising and delivering on all aspects of grant support from staff and PhD students recruitment through to promotion activities and budget management. Leading a small team with a varied responsibilities this is a dynamic role for joining up processes between external funding bodies and project partners through to working across a broad range of internal University departments from legal services to facilities.

Reporting to the Head of Operations and working closely with the Academic Head of Research the post holder will play a strategic role in the development of the School's ambitious research agenda.

JOB SUMMARY

The School Research Support Manager is a vital role for the School of Computer Science in proactively managing research support activity for the School of Computer Science. The role holder will work closely with colleagues within the School and across the University to ensure academic colleagues receive the necessary support to deliver world class research.

The role has three strands of focus:

• Core school research support
• Grant project management
• Team management

MAIN DUTIES

Core School Research Support

• Managing internally held research budgets, including supporting budgetary efficiencies agendas and reporting on endowments.
• Organising research and business engagement committees and away days, preparing committee papers and reports, and having oversight for secretarial report.
• Providing support for internal processes for the Research Excellence Framework through ensuring data is captured appropriately, proof reading content, contributing to reports and tracking impact.
• Supporting the Head of Research and Head of School in processes for academic sabbaticals, promotions, performance reviews and workload allocation as appropriate.
• Coordinating research promotion for the school including oversight of research webpages, drafting content for press / promotion.
• Keeping oversight of research events linked to the School, providing support and guidance as appropriate.
• Supporting the research visitor processes for the School.
• Creating and maintaining content for the School's intranet in relation to research support.
• Taking responsibility for information storage for research records compliant with GDPR.
• Contributing to internal and external review and/or accreditation exercises.
• Providing support on university systems to members of the School (PURE, Worktribe, Core systems, Key Travel).
• Identifying areas for service improvement and leading process improvements, sharing best practice with colleagues across the College and University as appropriate.
• Championing and leading the roll-out of any new systems or processes in relation to research support, and feedback on uptake and user-satisfaction at School/College level.
• Maintaining communications with the School's Head of Research and Head of Operations on all School research matters.
• Undertaking any other duties as reasonably required by the Head of Research and Head of Operations.

Grant management

• Acting as the senior project manager for all grants in the School of Computer Science with oversight for budget management and reporting across all projects.
• Setting up and maintaining systems for project monitoring and reporting.
• Providing proactive advice and guidance to Principle Investigators (PIs) to support them in managing their grants and most effectively using grant funds.
• Ensuring grants with funded professional services time allocated to the School receive the support they require to meet the needs of the grant, including allocating resource, writing reports, organising events, recruiting staff, creating marketing content, procuring equipment etc. as appropriate.
• Working across pre-award, grant set up, contracts, ethics, business engagement, HR, graduate school, IT services, post award finance, procurement, marketing and beyond, to minimise administrative oversight for PIs, from grant application through to project closure.
• Liaising with Research Facilitators and Business Engagement colleagues to proactively feedback issues on costing for future applications and contracts for deliverables and milestones

Team management

• Managing resources and effectively prioritising workloads to deliver results.
• Recruiting, inducting and line managing research support posts in the School.
• Overseeing contracting of temporary research assistants posts.
• Setting and maintaining service standards.
• Identifying, arranging and/or facilitate training and development opportunities as appropriate.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

• Honours degree or equivalent.
• Knowledge and understanding of the UK research funding environment, key funders and their processes.
• Experience of budget management
• 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.

Desirable

• Knowledge and understanding of a range of current research management areas, such as contracts, research costing/budgeting, research governance, ethical review, data sharing, open access, intellectual property, equality and diversity, etc.
• Postgraduate qualification or previous research experience.
• Experience of supporting research in an academic, public-sector or commercial research environment and of university collaboration with external partners.
• Line management experience.

Project Management and Organisational Skills

• Highly developed organisational skills, with the ability to work flexibly across a portfolio of projects, and prioritise competing demands on time.
• Project management skills, including development of project plans, and experience of budget planning.
• Ability to integrate complex information from internal and external sources to inform project planning.
• Proven ability to convey complex information, including financial information, in a clear way, and present operational conclusions clearly and concisely.
• Confident and capable user of IT inclusive of all main Office products (e.g. Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word)

Problem Solving and Initiative

• Creative attitude and excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to generate innovative responses when faced with a range of challenging scenarios.
• Able to remain calm under pressure, with a strong commitment to the delivery of exceptional customer service.
• Ability to work autonomously and under own-initiative in resolving issues, and applying a significant amount of professional and independent judgement.
• Ability to take responsibility for resolution of issues, proactively working with internal partners to negotiate satisfactory solutions.

Working Collaboratively

• Ability to build trusted relationships and work as part of a diverse team in delivering challenging outcomes.
• Ability to foster co-operation and collaborative internal partnership working in order to achieve project outcomes.
• Ability to work with others effectively, efficiently and supportively when under pressure, prioritising a diverse workload and always responding professionally and in a customer-focussed way.
• Understanding and experience of working flexibly across internal organisational boundaries, and bringing a whole-systems approach to plans and activities.

Communication Skills

• Excellent networking, interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Excellent written communication skills with an ability to vary tone as appropriate with a wide range of audiences.
• Excellent oral communication skills, confidently communicating one-on-one and in front of a group in a persuasive manner, gaining cooperation from people with disparate goals, presenting complex issues in a way that makes them accessible to others.

Interviews are being planned for w/c 4th January to be held over Zoom.

Informal enquiries may be made to Hayley Yarnell (School Head of Operations) H.Yarnell@bham.ac.uk

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community'

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