Senior Research Facilitator

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 to develop their research in the Institutes for Metabolism and Systems Research and Cardiovascular Sciences.

The Senior Research Facilitator post has responsibility for providing a professional research development service to academic staff within the above Institutes, 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

Item Duties

1 Identify and develop research funding opportunities and provide professional support for research proposal development

• Using initiative and authoritative knowledge of biomedical research funding agencies, their priorities and funding opportunities, review University/College research strengths, highlighting priorities and proactively facilitating teams of academics to respond to such opportunities in key areas relevant to your designated areas of responsibility.
• Maintain regular contact/reporting with relevant funding and stakeholder organisations to gain intelligence on funding opportunities.
• Develop and maintain relationships with members of funders peer review panels/committees and strategic advisory boards in order to identify best practice relating to winning research funding gather intelligence and awareness of forthcoming opportunities
• Work with the Research Administrator, disseminate qualified and value-added information on funding opportunities to appropriate academic staff through a range of appropriate channels in a timely manner
• Act as the first point of contact for all staff requiring advice on research funding opportunities and applications in your designated areas of responsibility, champion and contribute to all aspects of the research development, grant application and submission process.
• Managing the development of ideas ensuring appropriate fit to funders’ priorities/remits.
• Co-ordinating partner/stakeholder discussion meetings, including progressing relevant actions
• Supporting academics in preparing high-quality applications for funding by managing the process of completing of all tender/ funding application documentation including drafting high quality (generic) content particularly with regard to strategic direction and core information;
• Ensuring all proposals are appropriately costed and priced, taking due regard of all relevant requirements as directed by the funder/partners and to meet internal expectations;
• In collaboration with the Research Planning Partner or other Professional Services staff where appropriate, developing outstanding impact documentation for applications
• Critically reviewing and editing of draft applications
• Finalising applications ensuring adherence to funder requirements and managing actual submission requirements;
• Develop and manage quality assurance and demand management processes for all proposals developed in your designated areas of responsibility.
• Coach and develop researchers and academic colleagues in the development of research ideas and applying for funding. Especially support the process of developing less experienced investigators in the post holder’s designated areas of responsibility, specifically providing expert guidance in the internal and external administrative processes around research funding.
• Establish good working relations, workflows and coordination across the wider College R&KT teams and other activities in the College and University, including, for example:
• Ensuring the Technology Transfer Team of the R&KT Office is notified in appropriate timescales of all research activity with Technology Transfer/Commercialisation potential;
• Regular reporting of research achievements to the College Communications Manager and College Press Officer to ensure timely and effective dissemination and promotion of successes.
• Work closely with colleagues in the Research Application Support team as part of Birmingham Health Partners to ensure the delivery of appropriate and efficient support to researchers engaging in the preparation of clinical research proposals involving NHS partners.
• Work closely with staff within the Research Design Service in UHB to ensure researchers from the Institute and elsewhere across the University benefit fully from the service provided and that RDS staff members are fully briefed on the evolving priorities of the Institute and wider College(s).

2 Contributing to and facilitating the delivery of research strategies

• Contribute to strategic discussions and development of long term plans within your designated areas of responsibility, and more broadly the College and, at times alongside other senior colleagues (e.g. their RSP), within the wider University
• Provide support to decision making on the direction and priority of research support activities through effective market intelligence gathering, analysis and internal reporting. This may include the evaluation of broader political, economic and social trends as they relate to relevant areas of their designated areas of responsibility.
• Develop, with the Institute Director and others as appropriate, an action plan to implement aspects of the research strategies pertinent to their designated areas of responsibility
• Provide senior secretariat support to relevant research committees ensuring effective operation and appropriate reporting to/from the College Strategic Research Committee (SRC);
• Using professional knowledge and experience, work closely with relevant academic leads to draft, finalise and ensure widespread communication and implementation of appropriate documentation;
• Create effective working relationships with key external funding body/stakeholder personnel with particular reference to any existing and future externally supported Centres/Units within the Institute, but also supporting the wider integration of expertise into a developing College-wide portfolio of research applications;
• Assist with the organisation, promotion and smooth running of relevant research focused training/information events for their designated areas of responsibility particularly co-ordinating liaison with external funding partners. To include providing appropriate input and support for wider College-based events.
• Provide professional input/expertise with regard to national developments in specified research area that may impact more widely on College/University research activities.
• Provide high level support to Institute Director and relevant Academic Leads with regard to the Institute’s research activity, working closely with the Institute Manager to ensure delivery of activity across all administrative functions; acting as primary point of reference for complex research-related queries impacting on more than one administrative area.

3 Providing specialist knowledge and institutional leadership in research development

• Working with Institute academic and clinical staff, wider R&KT Office team, RIS, Ethics, Governance and Finance Office as well as Research Application Support team and other NHS Trust R&D staff, to provide expert input and contribute to establishing relevant (institutional-level) best practice for development of research proposals including clinical trials.
• With the same groups, the formulation of guidance/process requirements and ensuring uptake across all relevant areas within the College/University;
• Providing specialist advice to staff across the University in the development of their funding proposals including ensuring applicants follow all appropriate procedures relevant to their trials partners (e.g. transfer of information to and engaging with appropriate parties; obtaining services support and treatment costing).
• Ensuring proposals are compliant with necessary institutional and external research application protocols, research governance procedures and other appropriate legislation and guidelines e.g. Human Tissue Act, Clinical Trials requirements etc.
• Supporting assessment of the risks associated with clinical trials at proposal stage in order to assess cost and insurance implications for the University as part of referral to University Research Governance team and, in liaison with senior College management/other appropriate colleagues in the wider Finance Office, provide advice on appropriate mitigation.
• Maintaining relevant professional knowledge to support College/University to meet its obligations in accordance with any relevant legislation/external requirements;