Research Support Officer

Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Updated: about 19 hours ago
Location: Cardiff, WALES

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Research Support Officer

The main focus of your role will be to help enhance and grow Cardiff’s engagement with key external funding organisations. The role will be based within Research Development, Research and Innovation Services and you will provide critical, underpinning operational support to ensure that Cardiff’s research community is fully engaged with opportunities arising from the rapidly evolving external research funding landscape.

You will proactively support the management and development of Cardiff University’s relationships with key funders of research, such as UK Research & Innovation, major charities and UK and Welsh Government. You will carry out supporting work in areas such as organising visits and briefing documents, intelligence gathering, scoping opportunities, generation and updating of strategic documents and organising critical meetings to support effective engagement, both internally and externally. You will on occasion be asked to lead projects in the aforementioned areas. 

You will play a critical role in securing external funding and an increase in research income and your activities will be fully aligned with Cardiff University’s The Way Forward 2018-23 strategy, especially the Research and Innovation sub-strategies
The expectation is that the post holder will predominantly be based at Cardiff University, however, there will be a requirement to undertake UK travel.
This is an open-ended, full-time post.  

Salary:  £32,332 - £34,980 per annum (Grade 5)

This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working on campus you can also choose to spend some time working from another location, e.g. your home. The University is committed to offering this flexibility, wherever the role and business need allows, supporting work-life balance.

Date advert posted: Friday, 3 May 2024

Closing date: Friday, 31 May 2024

Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds.  We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age.  In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.


Job Description

Key Duties

  • Provide professional advice and guidance on research support and relationship building, including supporting effective delivery of key activities and initiatives (e.g. funder visits, management of internal funding processes and procedures, generation of effective briefing documents, delivery of training and support for the delivery of complex time-pressured bids), using your judgement and creativity to suggest the most appropriate course of action for external and internal partners, where appropriate, ensuring complex and conceptual issues around research and innovation, are understood;
  • Investigate and analyse specific issues with respect to research support and relationship activities creating recommendation reports and summaries, developing presentations and supporting academics / professional staff as required;
  • Ensure that the provision of research support is effectively delivered to individuals within the institution, proactively changing the delivery according to academic, professional and funder requirements
  • Collaborate with others in order to make recommendations for developments of established processes and procedures
  • Establish working relationships with key contacts, developing appropriate communication links with the University’s Schools/Directorates, key individuals within funders, and government officials;
  • Create and manage the work of specific working groups, or project teams. 
  • Develop and deliver training to support enhanced understanding of how to work effectively with funders, and other key stakeholders;
  • Undertake a variety of administrative duties to support the team, and department;
  • Instruct and guide other employees across the University within research support activities as required

General Duties
  • Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties
  • Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity
  • Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role

Person Specification

Important note: It is the University’s policy to use the person specification as a key tool for short-listing. Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL of the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable. As part of the application process you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement.  Please ensure that the evidence you are providing corresponds with the numbered criteria outlined below. Your application will be considered based on the information you provide under each element.

When attaching the supporting statement to your application profile, please ensure that you name it with the vacancy reference number, e.g. Supporting Statement for 16824BR.

Essential Criteria

  • Degree/NVQ 4 or equivalent Professional membership/experience
  • Substantial experience of working within the research support and funding environment, including provision of supportive and effective liaison with key external stakeholders; 
  • Able to demonstrate professional knowledge of research support and give timely, and effective advice and guidance to internal and external customers;
  • Able to set up standard office systems and procedures and make improvements as appropriate;
  • Ability to communicate conceptually detailed and complex information professionally and effectively, both verbally and using written formats, with a wide range of people, tailoring presentation accordingly and with a good attention to detail;
  • Evidence of ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered;
  • Evidence of effective team-working, including working across cross-cutting teams in the pursuit of delivery of an organisation’s major ambitions; 
  • Evidence of ability to solve expansive problems using initiative and creativity; identifying and proposing practical solutions and resolving problems with range of potential outcomes;
  • Evidence of demonstrable knowledge of key advances within the research funding landscape;
  • Evidence of ability to work unsupervised to deadlines, planning and setting priorities for own work and that of others and monitoring progress.
    • Desirable Criteria
  • Postgraduate/Professional qualification
  • Experience of working in a Higher Education or research funder environment
  • Fluency in Welsh, written and oral

    • Additional Information

    Research and Innovation Services

    Cardiff is an ambitious and innovative university located in a beautiful and thriving capital city. Our world-leading research was ranked 5th for quality amongst UK universities in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework and we provide an educationally outstanding experience for our 30,000 students. With an annual budget in excess of £500 million and around 6,000 staff, Cardiff is a member of the Russell Group of the 24 leading UK research-intensive universities. The University has 24 academic schools grouped into three colleges: Biomedical & Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

    The University’s ambition is to rank consistently among the top 100 universities in the world. Cardiff is also developing its Innovation System through a focused programme of investment in people and infrastructure.  Research funding secured from competitive, external sources exceeds £100 million annually and the University aims to grow this further through winning grants from a wide range of national and global sources.

    Research and Innovation Services, RIS supports the University’s research community in initiating and delivering research and innovation activities. Led by the Director, Dr David Bembo, RIS provides services via over 100 expert staff organised in five specialist teams: Research Grants Office; Research Integrity, Governance and Ethics; Research Development; Research Commercialisation and Impact; and Business Engagement and Partnerships. The Department works closely with academic and professional services staff from all areas of the institution.


    Job Category

    Admin / Clerical


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