Research Support Specialist - Des Moines, United States - Des Moines University

Description

**Research Support Specialist**

**Job no:**

**Work type:** FT

**Location:** Des Moines

**Categories:** Staff

Under the general direction of the Senior Director of Research Administration (SDRA), this position assists and supports research programs and research development. The position supports all the Office of Research organized students research experience programming including organization, logistics, students interaction, faculty/mentor interaction, campus outreach, and program assessment. The position supports faculty research and institutional programmatic proposal development from ideation to submission; research equipment management; funded projects management, and initiatives aimed at enhancing institutional research productivity and fostering research culture (research symposium, seminars etc.). The responsibilities of the research support specialist may change based on business needs, revisions to the research vision and research direction of the University.

**Essential Duties and Responsibilities:**

Assist with the management of the Mentored Students Research Program (MSRP); organizes cohort activities over the summer (including the MSRP orientation program) and throughout the year; support the University objective of offering students real-world research experience as a vital enhancement to classroom instruction by identifying, creating, and promoting mentored research opportunities with DMU faculty and other local, regional, national and international experts across all areas of research represented at the University.

Manage students research rotations; review and approve educational appropriateness of external research rotations; seek and secure affiliation agreements between the University and external research rotation sites and develop MOUs to formalize the terms of the agreements.

Assist the SDRA to manage the Research Elective Course for students.

Coordinates other Office of Research students research programming including but not limited to the Students Research Travel Awards, etc.

Develops and delivers academic content and curriculum for the purpose of supporting students research which can range from students/mentor workshops etc.; perform advisory functions for students research programming including individual students advising, support of student peer mentors, and faculty / students research program development.

Represents the Office of Research at campus events (University Open House, New Students, etc.) to communicate the benefits and opportunities associated with participation in students research as a High Impact Practice.

Acquire, update and maintain knowledge of the research priorities of individual faculty members as well as ongoing collaborations; create and periodically update a database of University PI research interests, expertise and focus.

Assists PI/PDs with the development of research and programmatic proposals including conducting background research, literature review, editing, writing key non-technical components, etc.; support proposals development from ideation to submission; assist PIs to plan, develop, prepare, and submit multi-investigator grants.

Guide and advise junior faculty, postdoctoral scientists, and students with their research grant, career development award, and fellowship application submissions by ensuring that their proposals are clear, concise, and compelling through writing and editing assistance.

Edit and proofread text of grant proposals and related other material, including recommending reorganization for better flow, rewording for clarity, checking bibliography, verifying concordance between figures and text, suggesting new figures, and editing to comply with specified style guidelines and grant requirements.

Research a variety of topics and information for faculty and create/write sections as templates and online resources in support of the proposal and submission process where sections may be used in numerous grants, articles, or other materials.

Consult with PIs and support the design/revision of research protocols (IRB) as necessary to ensure quality data that correlates with research objectives.

Assist in writing and managing project IRB protocols. Understand, support (research faculty, students) and ensure compliance with all IRB Protocols within the University research enterprise. This includes annual renewals, new protocols, modifications, and study closeout.

Assist the SDRA to support strategic planning of research related issues to increase research activities and the efficiency of research administration; assists the SDRA with space planning.

Assist the SDRA and participates in fostering collaborative relationship building with other universities, research centers, national, state professional organizations and local economic/social development organizations, to promote the Universitys Research enterprise.

Assist with the organization of activities or projects and events designed to increase and improve the research culture at the University (faculty/students research symposium, research reception, research roundtables, seminars, events to celebrate research accomplishments etc.).

Assist the SDRA in the effort to build, facilitate and support faculty team science collaborations/research clusters.

Develop and maintain a comprehensive database for all research related activities (publications, students research engagement and form, space utilization, etc.). Based on the database, perform analyses, prepares reports, produce research metrics etc., that documents research capacity and excellence at the University.

Serve as the project assistant on projects funded by the internal SEED Award program; provide project logistics support for both internally and externally funded projects.

Assigns Research Assistants (RAs) to shared equipment and ensures RAs are aware of their responsibilities of troubleshooting equipment problems and reporting those to Office of Research in a timely fashion; organize a response team (including RAs and others) that is agile and responsive to equipment alert systems during afterhours and weekends.

Assists the SDRA with the development of Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) related to the research enterprise at the University.

Continually update professional knowledge base by reviewing and analyzing professional literature, U.S. government publications and guidelines, participating in professional development and training opportunities, etc.

Participate in and successfully complete all University required training including, but not limited to discrimination/harassment and code of conduct.

Performs other job-related duties and special projects as assigned by the Senior Director of Research Administration.

**Education and experience:**

A bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in technical writing, life science, public health discipline or related field required. Masters degree preferred.

Two (2) years of professional level experience specifically in the areas of grant writing & development, project coordination and management, clinical and basic science research involvement required.

Experience with proposal development and writing, technical grant writing/editing.

Experience collaborating with individual researchers, interdisciplinary research teams, and administrative leadership.

Experience in clinical and/or basic science research.

Experience and/or involvement with programming related to student research experience and mentoring.

**Essential skills:**

Superior oral and written communication skills demonstrating the ability to effectively convey and explain information, influence outcomes and tactfully deal with diverse people, situations and ideas.

Must be comfortable working in a collaborative environment that necessitates an open emotional aptitude to comprehend the complexities and communication needs of diverse interdisciplinary sta