Research Projects Portfolio Administrator -College of Social Sciences - 59435 - Grade 5

Position Details

College of Social Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Grade: 5

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 26th November 2026

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 University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.

Role Summary

This role provides administrative support to the College of Social Sciences’ (CoSS) post-award research support function led by the Head of Operations, Research and Knowledge Transfer (RKT).

The role will provide excellent research support throughout the College across a broad range of activities including support to funded research projects, assisting with REF preparations under the strategic direction of the Head of Operations, RKT, and project and administrative support to the Director of Research. The post holder will be a key conduit between academic and professional services colleagues within the College and the wider institution.

The post holder will be responsible, as part of a small team, for delivering agreed services to an excellent level to Principal Investigators (PI’s) and will be an active participant in establishing the new function across the College.

Activities will range from responding to queries relating to particular funded projects, liaising with other College and University services to resolve queries, through to supporting colleagues in the use of the PURE Research Information System in support of our REF preparations. The balance in focus of these activities is likely to be adjusted according to the needs of Schools throughout the year and therefore a flexible and pragmatic approach will be required. The post holder will be required to establish and maintain efficient and effective administrative systems and seek to continuously improve these in line with feedback.

Main Duties

Administrative Support

• Resolving a wide range of queries from colleagues across the College relating to post-award research support.
• Signposting more complex queries as appropriate
• Building strong and effective networks, in particular with colleagues in RSSD (Pre Award and Post Award), School Business Operations Teams, HR, Finance, and Procurement to enable effective resolution of queries and efficient workflows
• Budget monitoring and reporting to PI’s
• Supporting and progressing recruitment and contract extension cases for research funded posts
• Co-ordinating and arranging project meetings
• Processing expense claims linked to funded projects
• Booking travel and accommodation
• Providing administrative support for events within funded projects

REF Support for College and Schools

• In conjunction with the Head of Operations (RKT) and University strategy:
• Support to Academic colleagues for the REF process, including using systems and data collection
• Supporting the sharing of good practice and collating information to support the People, Culture, and Environment (PCE) narrative
• Developing and monitoring a timetable of REF preparation activities within Schools, based on overall University timescales, prompting activity where appropriate
• Communicating key deadlines, ensuring consistency of message across the College.

Project Support for the College:

• Administrative support to the College Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee, REF SIG, and ROMAG as required
• Providing administrative support to the College Director of Research and Head of Operations (RKT) to deliver key projects as part of the College’s overall objectives for developing Professional Services support to Research.

Any other duties as appropriate to the grading of the post, as directed by the Head of Operations (RKT) or Director of Research. The postholder will be expected to work flexibly across the College, which could mean being assigned to particular Schools within the College and working in different office locations across the Edgbaston campus.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential:

• Educated to at least “A” level or equivalent relevant experience with a minimum of GCSE grade C or above in Maths and English.
• Ability to work flexibly and proactively with colleagues, ensuring that key peaks in workload and priority deadlines are met.
• Experience in setting up and developing administrative systems to support excellent service delivery
• Experience of budget monitoring
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop effective working relationships with all levels of staff and external contacts
• Excellent IT skills including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook with the ability to create, maintain and manipulate spreadsheets and databases, and to understand and interpret the information contained within
• Ability to work independently and accurately with minimal supervision
• Able to demonstrate ability to work on several tasks simultaneously and creatively solving problems using own initiative, seeking advice where required.
• Ability to identify, develop and implement improvements to administrative practises and procedures on an ongoing basis
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day-to-day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Desirable

• Experience within a Research support role (for example professional services support to REF, research finance, post award administration, PGR)
• Experience in the use of the PURE Research Information System
• Experience of supporting research in a discipline relevant to the College

Informal enquiries to Iola Jones, email: i.jones.1@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

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.