Senior Research Development Specialist - Basic Science & Transitional Research

Minimum Qualifications:

Master's degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM), Social Science, or Public Health and five years’ experience developing or writing proposals to/for federal, state, or local agencies.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• PhD, MD, or equivalent.
• Knowledge of grant application processes.

Job Description:  

The Senior Research Development Specialist will be responsible for providing professional development and proposal coordination for faculty researchers and for providing strategies to develop competitive proposals for biomedical and life science research funding from federal agencies, specifically those under Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health.   

Job Duties:

• Provides faculty and professional development by participating in seminars and other training programs as needed for UTMB researchers.
• Develops and updates templates, tools and guidance documents for use by researchers and other research development staff.
• Leads and coordinates strategic review of faculty-driven proposals.
• Leads and coordinates large multi-PI, programmatic grants, center grants or other specialty grants.
• Provides mentoring to early-stage investigators on grant best practices and strategy for long-term funding.
• Provides strategic, proactive, catalytic, and capacity-building proposal writing expertise to faculty members and researchers.
•  Provides analytical, technical, and professional support in writing funding proposals, including development of hypotheses, aims, and objectives, grantsmanship and limited scientific review.
• Proposal development duties include obtaining competitive intelligence on funding programs; facilitating PI team building; substantive editing of proposal sections. Work cooperatively with grant/contract specialists, and other Research Development team members in pursuit of these objectives.
• Identifies and maintains research alliances with potential collaborative partners and funding agencies to formulate and implement specific research projects.
• Monitors funding agency changes and priorities and identifies funding opportunities suited for faculty member(s) based upon their research expertise.
• Serves as proposal development expert to staff and researchers.
• Adheres to internal controls and reporting structure.
• Performs related duties as required. 

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, particularly the capacity for the integration and synthesis of written text that represents a melding of multidisciplinary research.
• Demonstrated capacity for independent decision making, research development, and working on multidisciplinary teams on project and proposal development.
• Knowledge of grant application processes for NIH.
• Requires the ability to multitask and work cooperatively with others.

Supervision:

Received: This position reports directly to a department Vice-Chair for Research, Chair, Center Director, Institute Director, or a suitable research development or research administration title such as Operations Manager, Associate Director, Director, or Executive Director.

Given: Directly reporting to this position includes Research Development Officer, Research Development Strategist, or research administration titles such as pre-award analyst.

Work Environment and Equipment:

Standard office environment. May require travel to conferences or meetings with funding agencies or professional development. Standard office equipment.

Salary Range:

Commensurate with experience.