Doctoral Landscape Award Manager

Salary: £35,116.00 - £37,174.00  per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 21 May 2025

The Role

Responsible for the overall management and communications for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA). Based at Newcastle as the lead organisation, but working across the full partnership (the Universities of Newcastle (lead), Durham, Northumbria and Teesside.

Please contact Faculty of Medical Sciences Graduate School on:fmsgradschool@newcastle.ac.uk if you wish to discuss this job opportunity

Key Accountabilities

• Ensure the smooth delivery of the DLA programme to maximise the training experience of students by d eveloping and undertaking the operational management of one of the University’s BBSRC DLAs including facilities and day to day support for operational procedures.  Proactively planning for the short, medium and long terms activities of the DLA to ensure delivery of the objectives.
• Develop and implement processes for financial management and reporting within the DLA, including the generation of budgets and spend profiles for the DLA Management Team, annual budgets for the DLA, and other reports as required by the Management Team.
• Contribute to the development of the DLA’s strategic plan and key performance indicators, including the provision of data management and risk analysis management to support the activities of the DLA.
• Ensure Equality, Diversity & Inclusion is embedded in all activities for the DLA, including recruitment and cohort activities.
• Maintain regular contact with DLA students and PIs to ensure that the programme runs according to its objectives and to ensure the effect cohort experience.
• Organise events and activities for the DLA. These include networking, dissemination, knowledge exchange, public engagement, training and research events (e.g. academic conferences). 
• Working with the Graduate School Manager(s) to ensure that the postgraduate research student support team manage and maintain DLA student records and that PIs/supervisors of DLA students are supported.
• Management and support of meetings of the DLA steering committee and networks, this includes agenda setting and reporting on performance.
• Oversee the budget for research and travel grant applications that support the activities of the DLA.
• Lead on the support for activities that require financial and organisational coordination and communication with external stakeholders and DLA partners including user groups, Universities, industry, government and third sector partners. This includes visiting and building relationships with industrial and institutional partners as well as exploring a wide variety of new opportunities external to the University environment, which will leverage existing funds.
• Develop and implement appropriate strategies for internal and external communication (e.g. website, newsletters, PR) and take responsibility for the delivery of these strategies. Co-ordinate the marketing and recruitment of the DLA studentships, including designing and sourcing of promotional material, monitoring and up-dating appropriate systems.
• Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required.

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Significant experience at a professional/administrative (including communications) level.
• Experience of working in a Learning & Teaching role (in particular Postgraduate Students).
• Experience of working under pressure with minimum supervision and willing to devote considerable energy to the appointment and accept a serious commitment to the aims of the DLA.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, including the ability to give presentations to senior internal and external partners.
• Advanced user of financial management software systems (e.g. SAP).
• Expert user of Microsoft Office packages.
• Ability to think strategically and to adopt an active approach to problem solving.
• Candidates must be able to spend time away from Newcastle visiting collaborators and organising events.
• Experience of planning and managing large events (200+ attendees).
• Experience of providing administrative support to multi-disciplinary research teams.
• Significant experience of planning communication strategies in both academic and commercial settings.
• Knowledge of content management systems for web editing.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Looking to the future – Gathering information
  • Talks to all partners; students; academic team, suppliers, public, in order to find out what is needed.
  • Collects relevant and available information from as many sources as possible.
  • Encourages and supports a free flow of communication and information, putting forward own view whilst listening and respecting the views and opinions of others.

• Inspiring Others – Communicating
  • Looks for impact of external developments on the University.
  • Understands how best to appeal to others, correctly interpreting the right way to approach a situation.
  • Can put forward their own view whilst listening and respecting the views and opinions of others.
  • Uses visual and verbal presentation to assess impact.
  • Is factually correct and gives consistent verbal and non-verbal messages.
  • Tailors content of communication to the audience, changing style, tone and format appropriately.

• Taking Responsibility – Planning and Organising
  • Effective at monitoring and controlling workflow of teams, quickly identifying what is important and prioritising accordingly whilst maintaining flexibility in work plans to allow for changing circumstances.
  • Works in a planned and structured way and keeps work systems up to date neat and tidy.
  • Taking Responsibility in delivering services.
  • Knows and understands customer needs in terms of dept/area outputs.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent work experience.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28136

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