Flexa
Blood Cancer UK • London (flexible)

Research Grants Officer

Employment type:  Full time
Salary:  £30,675 – £33,675 per annum

Remote-first – With Office Locations

Fully flexible hours

Job Description

Research Grants Officer

We have an exciting opportunity for a Research Grants Officer to join our research funding team and play a key part in ensuring smooth running of our funded research programme from the application and review process to grant award, claims and reporting.

You will play a central role in delivering our mission to beat blood cancer within a generation.

We are the largest UK blood cancer charity and the biggest dedicated funder of research into all types of blood cancer, providing funding for laboratory-based research projects to address important questions in the field of blood cancer. In the past 60 years, we’ve invested more than £500 million into blood cancer research which has had led to improved treatments, and saved lives.

We welcome applications to work full time or four day a week, please specify in your cover letter.

The closing date for this exciting opportunity is: 9am on Wednesday 7th June

Please note that we may bring forward the closing date at our discretion.

Key Responsibilities

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Support the application and award process for research grant applications;
  • Identify peer reviewers for applications and manage the peer review process across our funding schemes.
  • Develop and maintain professional working relationships with applicants, committee members and award holders.
  • Become a Superuser with Grant Tracker system. Develop improvements and manage modifications with implementation and testing for the system and application/progress and review forms.
  • Lead for internal systems, e.g. CRM.
  • To process the grant claims submitted to Blood Cancer UK to enable grant payments to the external host organisations.

Specific responsibilitiesResearch funding

  • Support the operation of the our Research Funding and Review Committee(s) and assist in supporting other committees and advisory groups;
  • Identify peer reviewers for applications and manage the peer review process across our funding schemes;
  • Prepare accurate and timely committee papers, meeting information and reports;
  • Preparation and distribution of high-quality committee minutes providing a clear record of events, actions, decisions taken, and financial commitments made;
  • Prepare and issue accurate and timely grant award letters;
  • Become a Superuser with Grant Tracker system. Develop improvements and manage modifications with implementation and testing for the system and application/progress and review forms.
  • Monitor the financial status of awards;
  • Process grant claims submitted for grant awards, completing the required validation checks so that claims can be sent to finance for payment;
  • Process the write back of completed grants on a regular basis
  • Monitor progress and outputs of awards;
  • Support the management of a portfolio of applications and grant awards;
  • Support the team to ensure the outcomes and impact of the research we fund is monitored and shared with internal and external audiences.
  • Develop and maintain effective relationships with committee members, grant holders and research administrators;
  • Demonstrate continuous improvement in areas of responsibility.

External engagement

  • Liaise with the UK blood cancer community offering advice on application procedures and resolve routine queries from grant applicants, grant holders, research and finance administrators.
  • Provide support to external users on the use of Grant Tracker, our online application processing and grants management system, working closely with our external software provider Symplectic to resolve issues as they arise. To liaise with Symplectic with regard to modifications and development of the system.

General Responsibilities:

  • Provide support to your external stakeholders on the use of Grant Tracker, (our online application processing and grants management system).
  • Provide accurate and timely grant funding and reporting in your area to both internal and external stakeholders when required.
  • General admin across the Research Team e.g. preparation of newsletters, triage of enquiries, supporting ad-hoc projects.
  • Contribute to the team being proactive and supportive, and working effectively and efficiently to achieve agreed objectives.
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of strong internal relationships across the charity, working specifically with the Communications and Fundraising Team to provide updates, content and support income generation.
  • Work closely with the Finance team to monitor and manage the online grant claims, and payment processes and grant write backs.
  • Undertake other work as required by the Deputy Director of Research and Senior Research Funding Manager.

Things we all do

  • Attend and assist at Blood cancer UK events and activities as required (NB this involves evening and weekend work);
  • Be an effective ambassador for Blood cancer UK at any activity you attend;
  • Develop an in-depth understanding of our work;
  • Do any other reasonable things your manager needs you to do.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

PERSON SPECIFICATIONSkills knowledge and experience

  • Educated to degree level or equivalent knowledge and experience
  • Knowledge of medical research, or funding sector
  • Knowledge of peer review and identifying peer reviewers
  • Knowledge of research admin and management, can be either pre or post award or equivalent
  • Experience of grants management systems, processes, and workflows, e.g. monitoring research progress and grant expenditure, handling queries for grant extensions or similar.
  • Well-developed interpersonal skills for liaising with internal and external communities, including senior academics, and committed to delivering an excellent, consistent, and professional service
  • Benefits

    We welcome conversations about part time working, job shares, and all forms of flexible working right from application stage. You can get in touch with us at recruitment@bloodcancer.org.uk if you want to ask us anything about flexible working.

    Benefits:
    We think our benefits are brilliant, and the majority start from day 1. These are just a few of them:

    • 30 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays
    • Generous pension scheme and Life Assurance
    • Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave, as well as study leave and a day off to move house
    • Wellbeing is a priority for us, we offer a wide range of individual and team support in our Wellbeing Hub
    • Our Academy is our in-house Continued Professional Development (CPD) learning and development programme, including an internal mentoring scheme. We have organisation-wide focus days, which are days set aside for you to focus on your own development, without being interrupted by emails and meetings.
    • Cycle to work and season ticket loans
    • Opportunity to take sabbaticals

    You can find full details about our benefits on our website.

    Company benefits

    Open to part-time employees
    Open to job sharing
    Open to compressed hours
    Sabbaticals
    Enhanced maternity leave – Our maternity/shared parental/adoption offer is 12 weeks at full pay, 12 weeks at half pay, followed by 15 weeks at the statutory rate.
    Enhanced paternity leave – Our paternity leave offer is 6 weeks at full pay.
    Adoption leave
    Shared parental leave
    Work from anywhere scheme – For the vast majority of our roles, there is no requirement to work from one of our offices. We meet up as an organisation at 2-4 in-person events each year, such as all-staff away days.
    30 days annual leave + bank holidays
    Enhanced sick pay – Our enhanced sick pay offer is: Up to two years’ service: 4 weeks full pay and 4 weeks half pay After two years’ service: 12 weeks full pay and 12 weeks half pay
    Pregnancy loss leave
    Fertility treatment leave
    Teambuilding days
    Location
    92%
    Employees are very happy with their working location freedom
    Hours
    90%
    Employees are very happy with the flexibility in the hours they work
    Benefits
    82%
    Employees are very happy with the benefits their company offers
    Work-life balance
    78%
    Employees feel that they can switch off quite easily from work
    Role modelling
    85%
    Employees feel that flexible working is part of the culture
    Autonomy
    90%
    Employees feel they have complete autonomy over getting their work done

    Working at Blood Cancer UK

    Company employees

    120

    Office locations

    London and Edinburgh

    Hiring Countries

    United Kingdom

    Awards & Achievements

    Most flexible companies

    Most flexible companies

    Flexa100 2024
    3rd – Charity & Tech For Good

    3rd – Charity & Tech For Good

    Industry awards 2023
    Most flexible companies

    Most flexible companies

    Flexa100 2023
    1st – Charity & Tech For Good

    1st – Charity & Tech For Good

    Industry awards 2022