Director, Strategic Research Administration

Department: Research & Graduate Studies

Entity: Aga Khan University

Location: Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction

The Director Strategic Research Administration (DSRA) will be responsible for planning and administering the AKU Research administration portfolio. You will also be responsible for assisting the Associate Vice Provost (AVP) in steering the strategic direction of research across AKU campuses as “one AKU” . You will assist the AVP in prioritizing and integrating research themes across campuses and disciplines and facilitating dissemination of AKU's research endeavours globally to AKU's broader community of stakeholders and supporters.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the AVP, you will be responsible for assisting  in positioning the  research office as a facilitation hub for AKU's upcoming endeavours in  global health, bio/data repository, innovation and incubation, technology transfer, genomic research, tissue banking and data mining, among others, in order to enhance AKU's research ranking. You will also be responsible for:

• Assisting the AVP in developing and executing a strategic research administration dashboard with KPIs encompassing research across all AKU campuses
• Assisting the AVP in facilitating research priorities and themes across disciplines and geographies 
• Capturing, analysing,  documenting research impact and assisting the AVP  in writing various technical reports, including the annual report and presentation to the Board of Trustees
• Facilitating workflows for bench space, IT requirements and equipment in core research facilities (labs, vivarium etc.)
• Working with research leads within each AKU entity, ensuring compliance of research administration procedures with national regulatory bodies in each country
• Safeguarding internal compliance to ethics, finance, human resources and internal audit guidelines to minimize risks associated with grant management
• Assisting in formulating and monitoring compliance to (existing and upcoming) policies for good research governance including ethics, biosafety and Intellectual Property
• Acting as an Ambassador for the Research Office nationally/internationally and disseminating AKU's research endeavours 
• Taking initiative to write or assist faculty in writing grants for capacity building of research across the university
• Providing leadership to junior staff in coordinating, training and conducting workshops for faculty and staff across AKU campuses to create awareness about grant management, institutional & national policy compliance and sensitisation towards filing patents 
• Assisting junior staff within the Research Office to maintain and update the webpages for the research office.

Requirements

You must have:

• Master's degree from an accredited college/university in research administration/business management
• At least ten years' experience in successful research project development, management and monitoring preferably in an academic environment 
• Demonstrated sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic set up of AKU and relevant government rules, guidelines and regulations
• Knowledge of principles and techniques of grant proposal writing and budgeting.
• Skills for developing project LFAs, dashboards, KPIs, undertaking priority setting exercises and conducting research administration workshops
• Ability to analyse, evaluate and recommend innovative solutions to help the research office achieve its priorities and goals
• Effective communication skills in English in both oral and written
• Ability to independently take decisions and reconcile divergent views while working with stakeholders within and outside the University including sponsoring agencies and donors
• Ability to organize effectively and to work under pressure to meet deadlines
• A mature demeanor in order to represent AVP in various meetings and forums (as required) 
• Proficiency in computer skills. 

Applications should be submitted latest by February 24, 2019