Research Compliance and Contracts Officer

This role is designed to specifically support EPSRC-funded Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) to comply with research security obligations and contractual arrangements with industry partners. You will be based within the Research Compliance Team with a line into the Research Contracts Team, managed by supervisors in both relevant to the element of work in which you are engaged.

This is a groundbreaking role in a sector-leading capacity, joining a dynamic and rapidly evolving team responsible for advising research academics and professional services teams across the University, to ensure research activity is carried out with the highest degree of compliance with relevant legislation.

You will be centrally involved in developing relationships with CDT Directors, PhD students and industrial partners, and will have a key role in providing advice and training to research academics and those professional services staff that support them in the conduct of pioneering and prestigious research. Funder focus on compliance with national security regulation and the importance of drafting appropriate collaboration and studentship agreement continues to increase and it will be your responsibility to ensure outcomes that manage internal and external relationships, whilst also protecting the University from the risk of financial, legal and reputation harm.

Engagement with internal and external stakeholders, including Government Funders and regulators will be a key element of your role, in addition to developing knowledge-sharing and best practice material in a fast-paced and developing area of law, delivering a critical function in providing specialist advice around Government regulation created to protect UK national security and infrastructure.

You will:

Be involved with investigating and managing enquiries from CDT Directors, supervisors, and postgraduate students specifically pertaining to their research.

Assist in establishing policy, processes and guidance around the University's response to legal compliance and contractual measures as relevant to CDTs.

Assist with training of professional services teams and research academics in the context of providing advice and awareness around research compliance and contractual requirements from CDTs, and associated risks of non-compliance.

Provide input into wider internal communications around prevalent research security risks and in preparing material for updates to SharePoint.

Horizon-scanning for arising risks and changes to legislation that could impact the University and, specifically, the CDTs awarded to the institution.

Assist in developing a reporting function to showcase practice implementation for each of the 9 CDTs awarded to the University over a 4 year period with the aim of extending its reach and size in the short- and long-term.

You are interested in an innovative role combining evolving regulatory compliance with strong commercial and contractual expertise

You are interested in developing an expanding area of legal expertise critical to research work in higher education.

You are keen to understand new legislation, assess risk, and provide confident and assertive advice to senior personnel with legal and non-legal experience

You have an awareness of policy and guidance processes, understanding the importance of audit functions.

You have strong problem-solving capability, able to deal with a concurrent workload of different issues with shifting priorities.

You have experience of providing supervision to junior staff members, and can assist in mentoring them through legal work experience and education.

You have positive interpersonal skills to enable engagement with key stakeholders within the University.

You are solutions-focussed, with a proactive and innovative approach to dealing with the challenges of working in a large, research-intensive University.

Whilst experience in a regulatory/commercial environment is desirable, it is not essential. Relevant and detailed training will be provided.

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding until 20/09/2032

Work pattern: Full time

Grade: I

For informal queries please contact: Chaitali Desai (Head of Research Compliance) on [email protected] or Rajive Sharma ( Senior Research Contracts Manager ) on [email protected]

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