Job description

This is an exciting opportunity within the School of Population Health & Environmental Science’s. We are seeking to appoint an experienced and highly motivated administrator to provide high quality research administration support to the School and its Research Manager.  

The post holder will work closely with the School Research Manager and the Core Team to support Pre-Award processes such as grant applications, award acceptance and award set up. 

They will also support Post Award processes such as providing guidance to our Academics on eligible and ineligible costs on a grant, monitoring budgets, flagging up risks with the School Research Manager and help find solutions to funding issues. 

The post holder will forge good working relationships with the Research Management & Innovation Directorate and champion the use of KCL systems (in particular our Research Grants Management system Worktribe and our Finance System KFin). 

As a core member of the School’s professional services Team, they will work closely with colleagues to provide high quality general administrative support to the School across all locations, as required. 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

• To support School staff with all tasks that span through the lifecycle of a Research Grant (Pre-award and post-award)  
• To build knowledge on Funders’ terms & conditions, such as eligible and ineligible costs, and be able to clearly communicate these to staff in the School
• To develop a detailed understanding of the School’s research profile, current funding portfolio and facilities
• To build knowledge of funding opportunities, and ways of maximizing overhead generation for the School, along with the output and impact of the School’s research
• To support external applicants who are applying for fellowship funding; assist honorary and adjunct colleagues with updating their PURE pages and applying for grant funding
• To provide guidance and training to Staff and Students on research-specific policies and processes
• To provide expert support and guidance to academic colleagues on the use of Worktribe and KFin
• To provide post-award support in the day-to-day financial administration of grants
• To support with the preparation of the School’s submission to the Research Excellence Framework, advising Staff on the requirements and expectations, and assist in gathering data
• To deputise for the School’s Research Manager where appropriate
• To provide general administrative support in line with the grading of the post
• To build and maintain effective relationships with academic and professional services staff across the college, including by participation in college networks.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and operational experience of end-to-end research administrative procedures and practice. You will have experience of using research management systems within a complex organisation. You will need to have the ability to work well under pressure and respond effectively when faced with changing priorities . You will have experience of building an effective network across a complex organization and with external stakeholders. You will be commited to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias

Essential criteria  

1.       Educated to degree level or relevant experience in costing applications, grant management and contracts  

2.       Good understanding of the UK and EU funding environment   

3.       Proven Professional Services skills gained within the Higher Education sector  

4.       Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills at all levels 

5.       Experience and good knowledge of using complex databases, management information systems and Excel. 

6.       Experience of using Research Grants Management systems (such as Worktribe, LUCRE, etc) and Finance System (such as Business World, Oracle, Agresso, etc). 

7.       Ability to work under pressure in a busy environment, multitask and prioritise own workload 

8.       Accuracy and attention to detail 

9.       Ability to follow guidance and instruction 

10.     Ability to follow up in a timely manner 

11.     Ability to work independently and as part of a team.  

12.     A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias 

Desirable criteria

1.       Knowledge of Research practice and policy in Health (bioscience / medicine) 

2.       Experience of financial planning and implementation, including preparing budget, financial profiling, preparing business cases and plans, and monitoring key performance indicators, budgets and risks 

3.       Detailed knowledge the regulatory, policy and procedural context along with the challenges and opportunities faced by the Higher Education sector 

Further information

Candidates are strongly encouraged to specifically address the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification in their covering letter.  

The School of Population Health & Environmental Science’s research comprises Analytics (broadly defined as the discovery and interpretation of meaningful patterns in quantitative and qualitative data), Investigation (broadly exploring analytical solutions to complex problems at the individual as well as population level) and Applied Research (broadly using analytics, including laboratory investigations, to identify needs and propose and evaluate new solutions to global societal health and social problems). This informs our approach and focus to developing and conducting research that addresses major questions, such as long-term conditions, multimorbidity, and environmental impacts on population health.   

This is an exciting time to join the Department and the School as we will soon merge with the existing School of Life Course Sciences. This will bring together very considerable clinical, scientific, and population/global health strengths. There are already many examples of joint working and collaboration between the two Schools, and it is envisaged that there will be significant opportunities to collaborate further and draw upon the critical mass of clinical, methodological, and applied researchers in the new, integrated School. The School will be one of the largest in the Faculty with strong links to the NIHR BRC and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration and with King’s Health Partners Clinical Academic Groups and Institutes, with the enormous potential to further leverage these synergies. 

About the Faculty:   https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/index.aspx 

About the School of Life Course Sciences:   https://www.kcl.ac.uk/solcs 

About the School of Population Health and Environmental Sciences:   www.kcl.ac.uk/sphes