Skip to main content

This job has expired

Research Finance Administrator - Finance Office

Employer
University of Birmingham
Location
United Kingdom
Salary
£24,291 to £30,207
Closing date
Jun 9, 2022

View more

Position Details

Finance Office - Research Support Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £24,291 to £26,094, with potential progression once in post to £30,207

Band 500

Full Time - Permanent

Closing date - 9th June 2022

Post cannot start before 1st July 2022

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 .

The Research Finance Administrator role is part of the wider Post Award Management team, which provides a coordinated and high-quality Post-Award support to academic colleagues.

The Research Strategy & Services Division is committed to delivering a consistently proactive, efficient, approachable, and knowledgeable service that enhances the ability of our academic staff to increase research income in a highly competitive funding environment.

The Research Finance Team is specifically responsible for all accounting matters relating to the £163m externally funded research income. This involves working to terms and conditions and driving the university's research income position.

Job Summary

Provide a key communications point which offers advice and resolutions regarding a range of research related financial matters to Budget Centre staff (including Academic, Academic Related, and Professorial).
Provide financial management and administration relating to research grants and contracts including maintaining appropriate systems records, invoicing sponsors in accordance with contracts, handling regular correspondence, and dealing with queries.

Assist, with supervision, in ensuring that the production of annual budgets and accounts for activities within the specified areas is both timely and accurate for inclusion within Management Information and Annual Accounts. Provide accountancy and administration support to senior members of the Team.

This role will be a key service and advice point for research administration/queries.

The team are working using a hybrid approach (home and in the office).

Main Duties
  • Ensuring all approvals are in place before project set up.
  • Setting up awarded grants and contracts within the University Finance Systems and ensuring all data is accurate and in accordance with the specific terms and conditions.
  • Resolve contractual issues, ensuring that contracts do not unduly disadvantage the university's cash flow position or represent undue risk. This involves discussion and agreement of payment terms and the VAT status is correct via the Contract Officer and Team Leader. It may also involve liaising directly with an external Funder and the VAT accountant
  • Financial management and administration of research accounts across a full range of sponsors including complex charity, overseas, commercial, government funded initiatives, ERDF, and European funding. This requires specialised knowledge of sponsors financial rules and regulations to ensure that the income to the University is maximized. Duties might include, for example:

- Ensuring that invoices and claims to sponsors are sent in accordance with the terms and conditions of contract in a timely manner and resolving any related queries.

- Reviewing the financial position of grants and contracts periodically (at least every four months) and ensuring that any potential financial problems are highlighted and resolved by liaising with the Principal Investigator and/or School Administrator
  • Working closely with colleagues with Research & Innovation Services to support the University's participation in various EU & other institutional strategic-funded schemes.
  • Responsibility for ensuring that staff costs can be met from the budgeted sum available, taking into account the effect of both incremental and estimated pay rises.
  • Monitoring and updating information as regards those projects that are still live but whose end dates have expired. This will involve liaison with both academic and departmental staff in order to resolve outstanding issues.
  • Liaising with External Auditors on project audit in accordance with Funder Terms & Conditions
  • Contribution to improving and developing systems and procedures to enhance service and outputs
  • Dealing with internal and external correspondence, answering standard and some complex queries independently and proposing solutions, some of which would need further consideration by the Research Team Leader.
  • Ad-hoc jobs for the Research Finance Team Leader & Research Finance Manager including assistance with business plans, production of reports and management information, re-organisation of paper and computer records.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience Required

Knowledge:
  • Formal relevant training (such as AAT, other Finance/Accountancy/Business qualifications)
  • Significant previous experience within accountancy/financial environment or administrative environment

Skills and Experience:
  • Must be numerate, excellent general computer skills, particularly spreadsheets experience of Excel, would be an advantage.
  • Excellent personal organization skills and a proven ability to priortise tasks effectively in order to cope with a high volume of work and still meet demanding work deadlines
  • Excellent communication skills and proven ability to provide an exceptional support service by responding to requests from internal and external customers promptly and professionally.
  • The postholder must possess initiative, excellent organisation skills, excellent communication skills, and be able to deliver under strict deadlines.


Informal enquires to Tracee Slater, email: t.j.slater@bham.ac.uk

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert