Position Details College of Medicine and Health Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Full time starting salary is normally in the range £28,397 to £30,210, with potential progression once in post to £33,938 Grade: 5 Part Time (28.8 hours per week) Fixed Term contract up to October 2028 Closing date: 26th November 2024 Our offer to you People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham Background The Research Delivery team, part of the College of Medicine & Health’s Research & Knowledge Transfer Office, is a vibrant hub for Professional Service staff ( 100 individuals) supporting a range of strategically important projects and programmes across the College’s research portfolio. We work closely with both Professional Services colleagues and academics across the University and partner organisations, including the Birmingham Health Partners alliance, to maximise the impact of funded research, and ensure effective strategies for the future sustainability of large infrastructure awards. The diverse portfolio of research supported includes many large-scale research programmes and infrastructure awards funded by charities, government and other major health research funders, including but not limited to: BactiVac - Bacterial Vaccines Network Health Data Research UK (HRD UK) Midlands Mental Health MTC – Birmingham University Mental Health NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery NIHR Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration NIHR Research Support Service NIHR School for Public Health Research - Public Health RESearch for Health Consortium (PHRESH) Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement at University of Birmingham Resilience Skills - UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research Translational Research at University of Birmingham This role will be embedded within the Research Delivery team and benefit from established relationships with programme partners and key stakeholders including NHS Trusts, collaborating research institutions both locally, nationally and globally, as well as patient and public contributors, charities and funders. The team are embedded across and beyond the University’s Edgbaston campus, with major footprints in locations including the Institute for Translational Medicine, co-located with NHS partners. As a large and continuously growing team, we have established 6 pillars to enable improved operational management and targeted peer networks: Applied Health Experimental Medicine Involvement & Engagement Multi Sector Networks Surgical Innovation Translational Portfolio To further encourage sharing of best practice across pillars, there are various opportunities for individuals to engage with colleagues outside of their project – and often outside of the Research Delivery team – to develop professionally. These include administrative, project and programme forums, and cross-cutting theme lunch and learn sessions, many of which are hosted in partnership with teams across the wider University’s Colleges and research functions. Job context The post of Senior Administrator will sit within the Experimental Medicine Pillar of the Research Programmes and Infrastructure team which is a part of the Research Office (RO) in the College of Medical & Dental Sciences (MDS). The Research Office provides responsive and comprehensive project and programme management support for health-related research, upholding the University’s reputation of research excellence. The post will support a number of projects and will engage with staff including academics, clinicians, and external collaborators. Role Summary As a Senior Administrator within the department, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You may also be responsible for supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge. You will be able to use your wide range of skills, both technical and administrative, and have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks within a team. In order to flexibly use resource, you may be given the opportunity to work in different areas of the department or wider University. Senior Administrators may work in any area of the University; with large groupings in HR, Finance, and School/College Hubs. Main Duties You will be able to deal with complex systems and procedures and will be expected to offer advice on these, including deciding on the response to more complex queries. Inputting publication data to PURE Research Fish updates You will be expected to exercise your judgment on the answer to queries or on the direction of work within parameters set by your manager. On a day-to-day basis you will be expected to resolve more complex queries without necessarily referring to your manager. If you have a supervisory role, you will line manage your staff taking responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the work of others. If not in a supervisory role you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team. Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders, both internally and externally, on your own initiative, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate. You may be involved in organising events including booking venues, processing payments, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back. Organising PPI/E meetings and events Organising scientific meetings and events Arranging travel/accommodation/conference fees for staff/students attending conferences and courses Will manage some smaller projects on own initiative, but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects. Annual and monthly metrics data (grant applications, live grants, publications etc) You will be expected to use a variety of complex University systems and processes to research, analyse and interpret complex data, producing bespoke reports as required. This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data. Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems. Process more complex data (which may be financial, HR, student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and resolving any issues as appropriate. Provide specialist advice and training to colleagues on area of activity. You may be required to be responsible for one or more of the following: monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget, procuring goods and services through the University system, updating and writing contents for the department’s communications e.g., intranet pages, dealing with health and safety and facilities issues, HR-related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers, dealing with arrangements for international visitors, monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate. Along with colleagues, manage multiple mailboxes. As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings. Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others. Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role. Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent. Highly proficient IT skills, in particular the ability to manage large email inboxes, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including Excel and PowerPoint, and some experience of using an enterprise resource planning package. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required. Proven ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own (and sometimes others’ workloads) to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines. Excellent interpersonal skills. The post holder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times. A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues. A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach. Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work. Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these. Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace. Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures. Experience of working within a research management environment. Dimensions This role will require the exercise of personal initiative within and beyond the department. May manage a team or budgets. Planning and Organising The role is required to work independently on daily, weekly, and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium-longer-term horizons without daily supervision. May manage other staffs’ workloads. Problem Solving and decision making They will work with direction from management but with a significant degree of autonomy. They will deal with more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in their area of responsibility. They may also manage the workload of others or coach others to achieve results. Internal and External relationships This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, likely to be University-wide and with external stakeholders. Further particulars can be found here Informal enquiries to Deborah Bird, email: d.birdbham.ac.uk View our staff values and behaviours here We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .