Research Facilitator (College of Medical & Dental Sciences)

Job Purpose

Sitting within the College of Medical & Dental Sciences Research & Knowledge Transfer (R&KT) Office structure and as part of the wider research support and development infrastructure of Research and Innovation Services (RIS) at the University of Birmingham, the Senior Research Facilitator post is an integral part of delivering research and knowledge transfer support to academics within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences (MDS).
This post is specifically focussed on supporting academic teams develop research in the new Institute of Applied Health Research as well as providing a leadership role within the research support team around clinical trials research development, which will require the individual to have or develop this bespoke knowledge.

The Senior Facilitator post has responsibility for providing a professional research development service to academic staff within the Institute, giving advice, support and guidance at all stages of the application development process and ensuring effective delivery of activity by relevant administrative and support staff. The post holder will provide strategic and tactical support to the Institute Director and relevant Research Leads to ensure establishment, development and delivery of the Institute/Thematic research strategy in the context of College, University (and where appropriate external research funder) research strategies.

The post holder will be expected to work closely with the Institute Manager, colleagues in the College R&KT Office as well as other teams in RIS and across the wider research support infrastructure of the University to ensure seamless delivery of activity across their area. This position provides an ideal opportunity to work within a demanding, multidisciplinary clinical and scientific research environment, and will involve interactions with a wide range of organisations and individuals.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Honours degree or equivalent within a discipline clearly related to the College of Medical & Dental Sciences core areas of academic activity.
• Significant knowledge of the UK research funding environment, key funders and their processes, relevant to the College’s core research areas.
• Proven knowledge and understanding of research management and contract issues such as research governance, ethical review, data protection, intellectual property, budget preparation, etc.
• Proven track record on providing significant support to successful funding applications.
• Experienced in the facilitation and formulation of research proposals sufficient to provide the College academy with detailed direction on scoping and developing bids/final grant applications drawing together complementary inputs and data to enhance the quality of the final applications.
• Proven ability to enhance the quality of applications through critical review.
• Strong networking and relationship building skills.
• Strong communicator both verbally and in writing. Able to present to groups, negotiate a position, structure and present complex ideas and data in writing and translate such complexity to make it accessible to others.
• Excellent analytical skills (financial, situational and organisational).
• Confident and capable user of IT inclusive of all main Office products (e.g. Access, Excel, Powerpoint and Word).
• Proven commitment to the delivery of exceptional customer service.
• Applying a significant amount of professional and independent judgement.

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification in a discipline relevant to the College of MDS core areas of academic research activity.
• Experience of working in an academic and or/public-sector or commercial research environment and of HE interaction with external agencies.
• Experience of supporting research in a discipline relevant to the College of MDS