OppAttune Research Project Manager

Unit :  Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS)
Salary :  £41,732 per annum pro-rata (Actual £20,866)
Location :  Milton Keynes
Please quote reference :  21557
Fixed-term Contract until 31 March 2026, Part-Time 18.5 hours per week
Closing Date :  15 April, 2024 - 12:00

Flexible working patterns will be considered.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home for the majority of time. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary. We’d expect this to be approximately once or twice per month.

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education.

Open Psychology Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

The Open Psychology Research Centre is the research centre of the School of Psychology & Counselling at The Open University. The successful project manager will be based within OPRC supporting the newly European funded OppAttune project working with seventeen international partners. The Centre represents a progressive approach to psychological research, theory and practice that is tightly connected with other social sciences and humanities disciplines. It champions creative, critical and credible psychological research that makes a difference to real social issues, that informs practice, and that inspires a positive vision for living together fairly, equitably and imaginatively. Our engaged research also feeds into scholarship for teaching at the OU.

The Open Psychology Research Centre supported multiple research projects across the school’s three research strands; the Culture and Social Psychology strand (CUSP), the Forensic Cognition Research Group (FCRG) and the Psychology of Health and Well-Being Group (PHEW). OppAttune will run from 2023 to 2026 and is located within CUSP.

The role

The Open University is recruiting a Project Manager to manage the Horizon-Europe and Innovate UK co-funded research project entitled OppAttune: Countering Oppositional Extremism through Attuned Dialogue: Track, Attune, Limit. OppAttune is focused on reducing extreme political narratives and building capacity for democratic dialogue in Europe and beyond.

The project began in April 2023 and will run until March 2026, and you will be responsible for the supporting the deliverables across all eight work packages within the strategic programme from first year reporting, through to communication, dissemination and policy recommendations.

The postholder has the following key responsibilities

1. Responsible for liaison with the scientific coordinator within OPRC at Open University, and two joint administrative coordinators. Liaison and coordination of  work packages.  Liaison with the Independent Research Advisory Committee. Liaison with OPRC Management Team, FASS-Finance Team and FASS-Research Management Team.

2. Communicating the project using a clearly articulated rolling communications plan across social media, external website and internal communications.  Communicating the project to European Commission and Innovate UK.

3.  Management and organisation of project deliverables between the three joint coordinators of OppAttune and work package leads. Production of project reports, relating to finance, administration and management of the project – monthly and quarterly. Overseeing review reports at 12, 24 and 36 months. Uploading all information to funding portals.

4. Leading and support project meetings as appropriate, coordinating and maintaining project plans using project management tools. Participate in Steering groups and working groups. Production of minutes and overseeing actions arising out of meetings.

Skills and experience

• Minimum standard of education to Bachelor’s degree level or equivalent
• Experience of working within an international team
• Diplomatic liaison skills.
• Proven track record of successfully delivering research projects, events and ad-hoc pieces of work and experience of planning significant aspects of focused research projects.

If you would like to discuss the application or recruitment process before making an application, please contact Emma Jones at Resourcing Hub on 01908 655544 or email [email protected] quoting the reference 21557.

What you get in return

You will join an international team of and we have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs.

We also offer a great range of benefits that support our employees and their families for the long term. Staff Benefits include an attractive pension proposition and 33 days holiday per annum pro rata, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure days.

How to apply

Unless otherwise stated in the advert, all applications are completed online via the instructions on The OU Job’s page. Applications submitted via 3rd party websites will not be received.

Access details for disabled applicants are available from the Resourcing Hub, telephone: 01908 655544, quoting the vacancy reference above.

To apply for this role please submit the following as one document;

• CV
• Personal statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

Please save your document with the following file name as appropriate to the vacancy you are applying for: “reference no - surname - first initial” e.g. 12345 - Smith - J.

You will need to have your documents ready ahead of submitting the electronic application. Please click on the APPLY NOW button below to be redirected to our application page.

APPLY NOW

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You can view your application communications on the Candidate portal .

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Job related information : 

Attachment	Size

Attachment	Size
Job Description - OppAttune Research Project Manager.docx	198.34 KB

• Terms and Conditions - Academic Related Staff  (PDF)

• Terms and Conditions - Academic Related Staff  (Word document)

Posting Date :  25 March, 2024 - 14:15