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CENTA Training and Teaching Fellow - School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Employer
University of Birmingham
Location
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Salary
£30,942.00 - £42,792.00
Closing date
Apr 28, 2021
Position details
  • School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
  • Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322, with potential progression once in post to £42,6792
  • Grade 7
  • Full Time/FTC for 3 years with potential to be extended
  • Interviews are likely to take place over 10th and 11th May 2021. Candidates will be asked to give a 5 minute presentation on Their Vision of Postgraduate Training. If it is possible under Government Guidance/Restrictions to hold the interviews and presentations in person at the University of Birmingham, Edgbaston campus that will be planned otherwise they will be virtual. UK travel expenses can be reimbursed for reasonable travel costs.
  • The expected start date is around late May/Early June 2021 and the role is currently available until 30 June 2024, full time.


Background

CENTA2 stands for the 'Central England NERC Training Alliance 2', a consortium of Universities and research institutes working together to provide excellence in doctoral research training within NERC's remit. The CENTA2 alliance receives 5 successive annual awards to fund a cohort of PhD studentships. Match funding from the partners means that a total number of about 33 PhD studentships starts each year for the lifetime of the DTP.

Our vision is to attain new standards of excellence in research training and to deliver a transformative interdisciplinary experience for doctoral researchers. CENTA2 will offer academic- and end-user-led doctoral training on a platform of world-leading environmental research, underpinned by cutting-edge technological and analytical tools and infrastructure. We will thus developing well-rounded individuals confident in a wide range of scientific, research, leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

CENTA2 will provide an innovative, high quality and comprehensive training programme to equip our Doctoral Researchers (DRs) with knowledge, skills, and expertise to identify and address complex environmental challenges and cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Excellence in research, directly informed by knowledge exchange with end-users, will underpin a multidisciplinary training environment that will support the development of skilled scientists to benefit future science, policy and the economy, thus supporting the delivery of the UK Industrial Strategy.

Students register for a PhD degree with one of the University partners (Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Warwick, The Open University, and Cranfield University), but they may be co-supervised by someone in another of the partners or another organization, or one of the research institute partners (British Geological Survey, the National Centre for Earth Observation, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology).

CENTA2 NERC-remit research excellence is focused in three broad interlocked themes that link with other disciplines, providing the capacity and expertise to deliver cutting-edge, multidisciplinary and end-user-facing projects. CENTA2 offers exciting and innovative DR projects across our research breadth and institutional membership. All theme and subtheme research involves multiple partners, ensuring no DRs will be isolated within the DTP. Science Theme 1: Climate and Environmental Sustainability; Science Theme 2: Organisms and Ecosystems; Science Theme 3: Dynamic Earth. These themes cut across about 20 academic departments, within the 6 universities, as well as the 4 NERC research organisations involved. This reflects both the multidisciplinary nature of much of our research and the critical mass of researchers in central England who span the breadth of the NERC remit. A critical mass of researchers in close geographic proximity is our great strength. It facilitates shared access to facilities and training and helps to build a strong cohort identity. We recruit graduates who have studied a wide range of subjects including earth sciences, geography, environmental science, chemistry, biology, physics, maths, engineering and computing.

Role Purpose

The Training and Teaching Fellow will be expected to travel extensively between the partners. The default host is the University of Birmingham, as the grant holder.

The Training and Teaching Fellow will be responsible for the management, co-coordination and delivery of CENTA's training programme. This will involve working closely with the DTP Director, Manager and management board, who will provide strategic oversight and guidance. The post requires the post holder (with a PhD) to design bespoke training programmes for CENTA & CENTA2 students.

As part of this role, the post holder will also: liaise with CENTA research students and supervisors to ensure smooth-running of the training programme; monitor and report on training elements to the management board; collate and prepare training information for the website; contribute to reports to NERC that summarise training activities; capture details of training success stories; and support CENTA's social media activities.

A focus responsibility will be to liaise with CENTA2's 19 strategic end-user collaborators (so called Level-1 and Level-2 End-users), who support the DTP in a prominent role with systematic input into the DTP development, structures and training provision. Especially the end-user led training provided in principle by the L1/2 End-users once a collaborative studentship was won, needs managing, organising and intensive discussions with the end-user and academic partners involved.

The further responsibility of the post holder will be to assess the training programmes that are run across the various partner institutions in terms of their success and student response to enable them to lead the delivery of the next iteration of the training programme in accordance with the CENTA Training programme rationale:

CENTA Training programme rationale:

The programme of training will equip CENTA students with scientific and generic research skills required to help them successfully complete their PhD and make a successful transition into their future careers in science, policy and the economy.

Specifically, it will:

1. meet student needs and be tailored to the specific requirements of individual cohorts and theme groups;

2. have a coherent, strategic structure that delivers core science and generic research training with progression in core elements;

3. be flexible in terms of detailed content - adaptable to changes in both student needs and, the expertise of the supervisory group;

4. map on to both the Researcher Development Framework and NERC-Most-Wanted Skills, as

well as CENTA's science themes

Main Duties

Key aspects of the role will include:
  • Ensuring that all students complete Development Needs Analysis forms, collating and analyzing the data and identifying key training needs at the cohort, theme and individual level;
  • Within the training framework established by the management board, identifying and organizing delivery of the training programme
  • Researching, observing, selecting and tailoring the best elements of training from the extensive array of modules and workshops currently provided by the CENTA partners;
  • Develop the Doctoral Training Partnership's training programme, liaising with partners and academics to identify new areas and activities for the programme
  • Coordinating bespoke training from external partners and organisations, especially those non-academic partners; special focus has to be laid on the incorporation of end-user led training provided from our Level 1 and Level2 strategic collaboration partners.
  • Liaise with external clients of the University or members of the public
  • Managing and monitoring CENTA's Virtual Research Environment (VRE) such that all students complete, and regularly update, a Personal Training Passport.
  • Develop an approach to planning and undertake personal professional development in teaching, including self-reflection on own teaching and researching and reflection on best practice for DTP training.
  • Receive guidance from the CENTA management board and work closely with the CENTA manager
  • Participate in internal networks for the exchange of information and to form relationships for future collaboration.


Other responsibilities include monitoring the DTP training budget and managing resource allocation, quality assurance of DTP training outputs and promotion of the education programme internally and externally.

Skills and Experience
  • Higher degree relevant to research or teaching area or equivalent qualifications
  • Ability to design and deliver module materials successfully
  • Ability to assess and organise resources effectively
  • Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
  • Planning and Organisational skills sufficient to lead in the planning of the next iteration of the training programme in accordance with the CENTA Training programme rationale.
  • Managing administrative tasks related to own work.
  • Ability to Research, observe, select and tailor the best elements of training from the extensive array of modules and workshops currently provided by the CENTA partners;
  • Ability to assess and organise resources.


Equal Opportunities
  • The School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences is an equal opportunities employer and holds an Athena Swan Bronze award. Female and BME staff are under-represented in the School and so we particularly value applications from such candidates. The School is happy to consider applications from candidates looking for flexible part time/job share arrangements as part of the appointment.
  • The School's Equality & Diversity / Athena SWAN lead, Sara Fregonese ( s.fregonese@bham.ac.uk ; 0121 414 3635) is available to discuss equal opportunities policies and initiatives, also outlined at: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/gees/about/athena-swan.aspx
  • The School is keen to improve its understanding of the perception of its equality opportunities policies, as a component of Athena Swan Silver status (application currently under review); we would be grateful if applicants would fill out a short (and completely anonymous) questionnaire regarding this specific issue, which can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KY9LH6P


For informal enquiries, please contact the CENTA Director, Professor Gregor Leckebusch, email: g.c.leckebusch@bham.ac.uk

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

Valuing excellence; sustaining investment

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