Unit Research Administrator

University of South Florida•Tampa, FL

About The Position

ORGANIZATIONAL SUMMARY: The College of Arts and Sciences is the intellectual heart of the University of South Florida. We are a community of teachers and scholars united in the belief that broadly educated people are the basis of a just, free, and prosperous society. By focusing on the big questions facing all of humanity, we prepare students for successful, socially responsible personal and professional lives. By conducting innovative, interdisciplinary research and scholarships, we advance knowledge in ways that prepare us to address complex social and scientific problems and enhance the quality of life for people and communities. There are 28 departments and 27 centers and institutes within the College of Arts and Sciences. These areas comprise of approximately 700+ faculty members and 200 staff plus many OPS and student employees. CAS Office of Research and Scholarship (CAS-ORS) provides support for the development of research proposals and fellowships by assisting researchers in identify funding sources that align with their research areas, designing and facilitating proposal development workshops, demonstrating applicable strategic tools and resources, performing comprehensive proposal narrative reviews, offering internal awards, and providing solid research infrastructure. In addition to the pre-award proposal and post-award grant support, CAS-ORS promotes the research and scholarship success of our faculty, correspondingly increasing our visibility within the university, our local community stakeholders, and our national and international peers. POSITION SUMMARY: The Unit Research Administrator position provides various levels of fiscal and administrative support to CAS Departments. This position may support departments housed in the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics (SNSM), the School of Social Sciences (SSS), the School of Humanities (SHUM), or Centers and Institutes. This position acts as a primary contact between Principal Investigators and Sponsored Research on the identification, development, review, submission and subsequent administration of grants and contracts. This position supports researchers by preparing budget projections, developing materials for compliance analysis, and advising the researchers concerning the review of the proposals by Sponsored Research. This position requires the knowledge of federal sponsor agency guidelines and regulations (NSF, NIH, NEH, etc.), OMB Uniform Guidance, and private sponsor agency (private foundation, corporate) guidelines. In addition, this position must interpret and apply varied Federal, State, and University policies and regulations through the entire proposal and contract process. After awards are made the position provides guidance to researchers on administrative steps such as setting up accounts, reconciling the projects on a regular basis, reviewing and approving invoices and financial reports prepared by Sponsored Research, preparing expenditure transfers and override requests with supporting justification, and reviewing the final reconciliation of the projects prepared by Sponsored Research.

Requirements

This position requires a Bachelor's degree and 1 year of professional administrative experience; or a Master's degree.
Progressively responsible related experience may substitute for the required education on a year for year basis.
4 years of directly relevant experience may be substituted for bachelor's degree.
6 years of directly relevant experience may be substituted for master's degree.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration/Accounting/Finance, or closely related field.
1 year of grant research or grant research administration experience, and knowledge of USF business systems and policies.

Responsibilities

Works closely with faculty in the development of proposals while ensuring compliance with applicable sponsor, University Sponsored Research, Foundation and College of Arts and Sciences regulations, guidelines and processes.
Provides technical assistance to facilitate the development of grant proposals and assists faculty with submitting proposals to various agencies.
Assists in critical review, writing, and editing of research proposal.
Calculates budgets and ensures inclusion of all appropriate and required elements including direct and indirect costs, cost share, program income, etc.
Assists in developing budget justifications, review of sub-recipient budgets and justifications, and insures accurate completion of sponsor application forms and USF internal forms.
Works with the CAS Office of Research to ensure completeness and compliance of all components of the proposal.
Responsible for the oversight and support to Principal Investigators, project staff, and CAS administration in the following areas of post-award management.
Awards underwrite accounts properly assessing risk; prepares and oversees award setup; develops and modifies as necessary sub-recipient agreements; processes all financial transactions including payroll distribution monitoring and cost transfers; work with department Chair/staff on resource commitments to confirm available funds for hiring projected personnel funded by grants/contracts.
Coordinate with department staff on preparing hiring documents and processing of grant paid tuition payments; monitors effort reporting process; identifying and tracks cost sharing and matching requirements and documentation; assists with obtaining sponsor approvals for non-budgeted financial transactions or changes; preparation of monthly ledgers and reconciliation reports; annual and award financial closeouts; assists with responses to audits and post-project requests.
Reconciles projects, research initiative accounts, start-up, retention, and carry-forward accounts on a monthly basis, prepares documents.
Attends ongoing trainings, meetings and workshops to stay current on all grant policies and procedures.
Collaborates with other research personnel for best practices, and represents the college and/or department on committees and communicates pertinent information to departments.
Performs other duties as assigned.