ABOUT THE ROLE The main part of the role of the student placement will be to support the Research Development team deliver on its core functions and to support the team with providing a streamlined service to Northumbria’s research community. The student will gain a valuable insight into working in a fast-paced research environment and will be supported by an experienced team of research development managers and pre-award officers. The student will also have the opportunity to work with the Knowledge Exchange teams within RIS, supporting the coordination of some of the KE activities RIS delivers. Time spent on KE activities will be balanced to offer a rich and broad experience and will be managed specifically by the Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Team. We consider this discreet one year project a valuable opportunity for the development of soft skills such as organisation, communication, and teamwork and more technical skills relating to IT Systems such as Microsoft Office and Worktribe, and knowledge of research development and KE more broadly. Full training will be provided.
Duties would include (but not limited to):
1. Supporting with establishing new resources which underpin and shape ways of working across the team(s)
2. Lead on producing the fortnightly research funding bulletin
3. Supporting with development of new document management infrastructure that aligns with the needs and requirements of the team(s)
4. Supporting the co-ordination of research funding workshops and sandpits, as well as the annual IP Commercialisation Showcase Event e.g. identifying suitable dates and timeslots, communicating with participants, booking rooms, organising catering, drafting workshop notes, disseminating follow up material
5. Convening internal review panel meetings e.g. organising time slots, booking rooms, circulation of papers
6. Support with preparation for internal funding briefing sessions e.g. checking information is correct, resources are made available, responding to general enquiries
7. Support with co-ordination for demand management processes e.g. collating internal Expressions of Interest (EoI)
8. Support with coordination of the Knowledge Exchange Operations Committee including the collation of plans from the KE Operational Leads, room bookings, and circulation of materials
9. Development of research development toolkit e.g. developing repository of online research funding resources to be made available on the RD-Hub in Sharepoint
10. Management of the team’s intranet pages
11. General support with light-touch queries through the research support mailbox
We believe that this opportunity will add significantly to the students university level skills and provide the successful candidate with a rounded experience of working within professional services of a university.
We believe this opportunity will be of interest to students from a range of academic backgrounds and is reliant on the individual having an interest in the area and a positive approach to work. The successful student will get practical experience of developing briefings and taking minutes as well as a much-enhanced understanding of the role of research development and KE in the university context. The student will also gain significant understanding of research funding, the development of research funding proposals, and the way in which Knowledge Exchange is delivered in a University, associated training and support provided and key academic / professional services interactions.
The student would be an integral part of the research development team and would have an assigned line manager who would be responsible for ensuring training needs are discussed and met where able as well as assigning a mentor from the wider service to provide support outside of the management chain and wider understanding of the RIS portfolio. Time spent with KE teams will be overseen by a member of the IP Commercialisation Team, in conjunction with the students dedicated line manager.