Research Finance Manager

Guidant Global

Guidant Global is recruiting on behalf of a highly recognised university for a Research Finance Manager for a 3-Month contract duration with an immediate start.

The post-holder will facilitate grant and funding administration, consultancy activity and general management and monitoring of current and proposed research projects. This role may occasionally require assisting in the department’s communications and networking activities. The post requires a high level of accuracy, financial skill and considerable initiative.

In this role, you can expect to:

Research Grant and Funding Administration

• Develop and maintain a thorough understanding of the institution and the main research sponsors’ financial regulations.
• Organise the provision of financial data to inform costings for funding and proposals.
• Prepare funding applications in conjunction with Principal Investigators including providing costing for proposed project.
• Assess proposal budgets to ensure financial viability and report to senior colleagues for approval as needed.
• Work alongside academic and research staff to set and adhere to proposal deadlines as well as meet the sponsor’s funding guidelines.
• Ensure that accounts and budgets for new awards are set up quickly and efficiently in collaboration with senior research managers, Business and Contracts Research Office.
• Organise contract set-up for newly awarded research projects.
• Oversee the smooth and timely transfer of grants, contracts and associated resources of academics joining or leaving the department.
• Initiate and monitor the process of research staff appointments and contract extensions or terminations.
• Monitor expenditure against grant budget, ensure compliance with funders’ T&Cs and alert relevant people on under and over-spends.
• Support the preparation of cost statements and management reports, ensuring they are complete, accurate and backed up by the appropriate documentation (timesheets, invoices, etc).
• Assist central finance departments in closing expired accounts and dealing with under- or over-spends.
• Assist grant holders in project change requests
• Maintain records of awards distributed and provide financial reports for grant activity.

Research Communication and Marketing

• Prepare and edit documents for internal and external circulation regarding departmental research.
• Review and regularly update the department’s research finance webpages.
• Support, as required, the promotion and publicity of the department’s research to increase engagement and collaboration with industry through events, the web and other media.
• Assist the departmental communications manager in promoting and marketing our research activity internally.
• Serving on the institution working groups and attending meetings, user groups, workshops and conferences relating to research procedures and governance, representing the department/ faculty on these.

Other Duties

• Possess an understanding of Financial Regulations and apply it to the department’s activities.
• Maintain a working knowledge of the department’s General Ledger accounts.
• Provide accurate and timely input to the department’s budgeting and forecasting exercise.
• Understand the technical aspects of VAT and its application in a research contract context.
• Produce, on occasion, financial business cases in support of special projects (eg. creation of a new research institute) or potential academic recruits.
• Verifying research income data and providing management information for REF returns, preparing and adapting database information for reporting purposes and presenting the data in the format required.
• Developing contacts with the administrative departments and seeking advice on HR, Finance and legal matters as required.

In addition, the post holder will be expected to follow policies on:

Equal Opportunities, Fire and Health & Safety regulations

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

Educated to degree level or equivalent or having acquired relevant experience in managing financial processes.

Knowledge of research funding processes and regulations within a HE/research environment.

Experience of providing administrative assistance in the preparation of research funding applications.

Experience of using online financial systems such as MyFinance and Worktribe.

Experience of project managing research projects.

Knowledge of contemporary strategic issues and challenges facing both higher education and the research specialism of the department.

Skills and abilities

• Ability to confidently network with others, building and maintaining internal and external stakeholder relationships.
• A commitment to customer focus and the need to provide an efficient, professional and effective service to the many users and contacts both internally at all levels of the organisation and externally.
• Proven consistent ability to meet tight individual and group deadlines and to manage own workload through effective prioritising, time management and organisational skills.
• Ability to work under pressure whilst maintaining close attention to detail and accuracy.
• Excellent analytical skills including ability to research, analyse and interpret financial information.
• High level of numeracy, with the ability to understand and interpret a variety of figures and statistics, and deliver accurately against operational deadlines.
• Ability to prepare and co-ordinate accurate reports, budgets and recommendations for a variety of uses.

You will receive various benefits including weekly pay, a monthly recognition scheme, a refer-a-friend scheme, and visibility on potential permanent opportunities at the institution.

Guidant Global (BH4SF) is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.