Contracts Officer Edinburgh, Scotland
Job description
Grade UE06: £29,619 - £34,308 per annum
Corporate Services Group / Edinburgh Research Office
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed-term: 1 year
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced research contracts specialist to play a key role in the continued evolution of our Research Contracts, Governance and Integrity team , supporting a wonderful variety of world leading research.
Edinburgh Research Office (ERO)
Colleagues in Edinburgh Research Office work in partnership with researchers to develop and deliver world-leading research. We work across the research lifecycle – growing ideas into proposals, projects and impact. We are enablers and connectors, networked across the University, able to provide the best advice to researchers and research leaders in all disciplines. We are part of a wider ecosystem of over 300 colleagues providing research support across the University of Edinburgh – linking through our Schools, Colleges and Service Groups.
The University of Edinburgh comprises 3 Colleges and 21 Schools/Institutes. Our team of more than 100 colleagues (across six teams: Strategic Research Development, Research Funding, Research Grants, Research Contracts Governance & Integrity, Knowledge Exchange & Impact and Communications & Engagement) work across the University – contributing to £1.24bn of research grant applications and £359m awards won in 2020/21. Our teams support around 3,500 live grants from over 350 different funders. We achieve this through great team-work - we work in a very collegiate way, in line with our values. We are committed to offering a stimulating and exciting place to work – and we seek colleagues who wish to participate in a dynamic office which welcomes contributions from all team members to our practices, processes and ways of working. The breadth of areas we support offers significant opportunities to gain great experience and we are committed to developing everyone in our team to enable them to further their careers in Edinburgh Research Office or beyond. To find out more, visit https://www.ed.ac.uk/research-office
The Opportunity
We are seeking colleagues who will embody our values of expertise, community, integrity and collaboration.
The Research Contracts, Governance & Integrity team works closely with the University of Edinburgh research and professional service communities, as well as external stakeholders, to provide an expert research contracts service; to ensure that the University upholds its commitments to the highest standards of research integrity; to ensure the University meets its regulatory and legal obligations (including the Trusted Research agenda); and to provide an information governance service for research data.
Currently reporting to a Senior Contracts Manager, you will join a team of 15 contracts specialists in a busy team which receives approximately 1600 contract requests per year. You will play a key role in the delivery of ERO’s research contracts service. To do this you’ll work on the drafting, negotiation and signature of legal agreements required for University research. Your involvement in the contract ends at signature – please note this is not a procurement role. You will build positive working relationships with colleagues in ERO, the University’s research community and other allied, expert professional services teams.
Personal Characteristics
We are ambitious for our research contracts service, and look forward to the contribution your insights and experience will bring. As well as your recent experience and understanding of the contracting process – whether you are a contracts professional in a research intensive institution or work drafting, negotiating and finalising legal agreements in another setting - we need your enthusiasm, proactivity and advanced communication skills.
If you would like to discuss the opportunity please contact Allan Shanks at [email protected] .
Development Opportunities
Edinburgh Research Office is a supportive and encouraging environment for those new to research professional services and those wishing to further develop their University professional service careers. We have a longstanding commitment to training and staff development and a great track record of internal promotions for ambitious colleagues. We actively encourage all colleagues in ERO to think about their development in role. We encourage applicants to think not just about their suitability now, but how they might grow in the role in the future. Please apply with a CV and a supporting statement explaining how you meet the knowledge, skills and experience required, and your motivation for applying for this post.
Closing Date – 20 February 2023
Expected date of interviews – late February 2023
What skills and experience you will bring?
- Recent, or related, relevant experience or an understanding of drafting, reviewing, and negotiating research contracts. In particular, an understanding of material transfer agreements and confidentiality agreements would be an advantage.
- The ability to work independently, pay close attention to detail and to think pragmatically to develop legal solutions to contractual challenges,
- An ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to successfully conclude contracts in a timely manner.
- An aptitude for customer service.
- Excellent professional and communication skills
A full list of main responsibilities and the knowledge, skills and experience required for the role can be found in the full job description below.
Click here for a copy of the full job description .
As a valued member of our team you can expect:
An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We will give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme , staff discounts, family friendly initiatives , flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.
If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages.
On this occasion the University will not consider applicants requiring sponsorship for this role. International workers will therefore only be able to take up this role if they can demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.
