Research Development Officer

Job description

The Health Research Development team supports research income generation activity across the four health faculties at KCL. Academic staff in health faculties have multiple collaborations with colleagues in other faculties, requiring collaborative working with professional services and academic colleagues across the university. Our team focusses on helping faculties deliver KCL’s health research strategy. Our work is enormously varied and ranges from supporting the implementation of major organisational strategic priorities, to supporting individuals seeking their first research grant. We help group leaders, departments, schools and faculties develop their plans for grant acquisition, provide insight into funder priorities and processes, and support the development of grant proposals from concept, to drafting, to interview preparation.   

Health Research Development is a central team that works closely with scientists and research support teams in each faculty. In this role, responsible to the Director of Research Development (Health) you will help us prioritise our effort to where it is needed most, by managing processes that actively support planning and coordination of our work with the priorities of our customers. You’ll make sure we deliver training, resources and engagement with research funders effectively. And you’ll have a hands-on role in delivering support for grant development and the delivery of internal research funding streams. 

This role is suitable for career research administrators and also provides an excellent entry point to a career in research development. To thrive in this role you’ll bring a strong grounding in a relevant field of research with a good understanding or how health research funding works and the ability to contribute to scientific aspects of funding processes, such as peer reviewer selection. You will be solution focussed, with an organised and adaptable approach and be able to quickly understand complex concepts. And you’ll bring the motivation and personal qualities to engage with senior academic staff and professional service colleagues to understand their goals and challenges and help address them. In return we offer an unbeatable learning environment, with opportunities to develop your career in a collaborative and highly valued team. 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

This is a full-time post

Key responsibilities

1. Planning, coordination and reporting: working with the Director of Research Development (Health) to:

• Support team planning, coordination and provision of research development services across the Health faculties

• Assisting with the production of user-friendly management reporting data

• Curation and continual review of research development information and training resources, including our intranet pages, online application bank and other e-working resources

• Working with colleagues in the Arts & Sciences Research Office to share learnings between research development activities across the wider department, streamline processes and ensure a consistent customer experience for KCL academics 2. Internal research funding: Working with Research Development Managers to manage application and award processes for internal research funding streams delivered by Health Research Development 3. External research funding: working with Research Development Managers, Pre-Award and Faculty colleagues to:

• Maintain an up to date knowledge of health research funding opportunities

• Manage internal triage processes for external research grant competitions

• Support cross-Faculty bid development, including coordinating workshops, submission preparation and peer review

• Support the refinement and development of the grant application process, including contributing to the organisation, creation and delivery of training for academics and local/departmental research support staff

• Organise research development workshops and visits from research funders 4. Providing ad-hoc support for health related projects for the Director of Research (Health), Director of Research Strategy and Development, VP Research and Innovation or others as appropriate  5. Conduct desk research to present information and develop insight for research development projects

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

Essential criteria

1. Graduate degree or equivalent experience in a subject relevant to health sciences
2. Good understanding of the health research funding landscape
3. Experience in research administration, preferably in an academic research support environment or research funding body
4. Excellent people skills with the ability to work with staff at all levels, inside and outside the organisation, with assurance and ease
5. Excellent written and spoken communication skills
6. Excellent qualitative and quantitative analysis, with high levels of accuracy and attention to detail
7. Experience of project planning and implementation
8. Experience of managing changes in procedures and processes
9. Experience of managing and prioritising a varied workload with competing priorities
10. Confident making independent decisions and knowing when to escalate
11. Proactive approach and aptitude for understanding complex situations quickly and providing creative solutions to problems
12. A high level of tact, discretion and ability to keep information confidential

Desirable criteria

1. PhD or equivalent research experience in a subject relevant to health sciences
2. Experience of the scientific peer review process
3. Experience of peer reviewer selection
4. Experience of managing web content within a content management system

Further information

Interview and assessments for this post are expected to be help in June. Details will be provided to shortlisted applicants. Informal queries about the role are welcome and can be directed to alasdair.rankin@kcl.ac.uk