Research Project Officer

As project officer, you are the linchpin between academic staff and support staff. Your focus is on research projects that are financed by external organisations such as the European Commission, NWO, and regional or international funds. Understanding guidelines and requirements from external funding agencies as well as faculty- and UM policies, and making this information accessible, comes naturally to you.

As Project Officer, you:

• will liaise between the Principal Investigators (PIs) and external and internal stakeholders of several (externally funded) research projects;
• support with organisation of meetings, conferences (e.g. kick-off, mid-term, final) and smaller seminars and workshops during the projects;
• are responsible for tracking, formatting and publication of project-related deliverables (e.g. progress reports, secondment contracts, ethics protocols);
• understand the ethical, legal and compliance issues associated with such projects, are able to take the lead and know when and where to seek specialist advice;
• will work closely together with the PI on project deliverables (e.g. data management plans and ethics approval) and preparing the mid-term/final reporting.

When receiving a grant, researchers already have a solid project proposal with a budget prepared by the Finance Cluster and possibly an extra check with the HR cluster. Key to your role is supporting researchers with the implementation of their project; e.g. finding their way in the rules and regulations of the grant agreement and relevant FASoS and UM policies. What do they need to know? With whom do they need to pick it up, by when? You are the liaison between the researcher on the one hand and the grant authority and internal organisation on the other hand. Your goal is to keep the entire process and administration surrounding the execution of projects running smoothly.

You will be part of the Research Support Office (RSO). The RSO at FASoS aims to make the life of researchers easier through faculty incentives, funding support, secretarial support, and policy advice. This includes supporting a number of strategic externally funded projects. In addition to assisting individual researchers, the RSO prepares policy advice and procedures to the Graduate School, Research Programmes, Research Centres, and Faculty Board.

The position of project officer is closely linked to those of the other staff members in the Research Support Office and beyond. Other clusters you will be working with are Finance, HR and Marketing & Communication.