University of Bath
Pre-Award Development Officer

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Pre-Award Development Officer
Join Pre-Award in Research and Impact Services (RIS) in this one-year fixed-term role!
About Us
RIS is responsible for advancing the University's international reputation for research and knowledge transfer by:
- increasing the volume of externally funded research
- improving grant application success rates
- enhancing strategic and operational support to academic departments
Our department is the primary conduit for government, business, charity and other funders to access the research expertise and knowledge of the University of Bath.
About The Role
Working within a highly collaborative team, Pre-Award Development Officers play a crucial role in providing expert advice to academic researchers across the university applying for external research funding. If successful in your application to this post, you will ensure all research applications and awards are reviewed and developed to improve their quality and meet university and funder rules.
This role requires excellent organisational, interpersonal and communication skills along with a good understanding of the research funding landscape for the higher education sector, including familiarity with relevant sources of funding.
You Will Also Have
- skills to scrutinise sophisticated documents and draw out relevant information, with excellent attention to detail
- good numeracy and IT skills
- self-confidence and the ability to stand your ground, remaining calm under pressure
- good self-motivation and time-management
- a good Honours degree or equivalent experience
Further information
This is a full-time role (36.5 hours) for a fixed-term period of one year.
The Pre-Award team works both remotely and on campus as part of a hybrid model. While hybrid working is the standard approach, we are open to discussing individual circumstances and alternative working arrangements for the right candidate. Please feel free to contact us before applying, or during the interview process, to discuss this further.
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Only hits
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For an informal discussion about the role please contact Lizzie Hope-Dyer, Head of Research Funding (erh23@bath.ac.uk) or Emma Dowden, Pre Award Manager (ed251@bath.ac.uk).
We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.
We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.
What we can offer you
Benefits
We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:
- Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
- Generous employer contributory pension schemes
- Cycle to work scheme
- Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
- Staff discount at Team Bath gym
- Staff benefits include discounted postgraduate tuition and language courses, alongside a wide range of personal and professional development opportunities such as apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning, and more
- Local discounts, including free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
- A family-friendly workplace
- An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
- Relocation allowance
- Employee assistance services through Health Assured, including access to the Wisdom app


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Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn.
Be Well at Bath
We’re Committed To Creating a Health-supporting Working Environment Where Everyone Can Thrive And Be At Their Best. We Offer a Range Of Resources To Enable You To Do That From Your First Day Here, Including
- Staff support groups and networks
- A network of Staff Wellbeing Champions
- A suite of tools, resources and frameworks that enable you to be at your best and thrive
Find out more about being at your best at Bath.
Further Details
Job Description & Person Specification
Terms and Conditions of Employment
Right to Work in the UK
We do not assess immigration or right to work status until offer stage. Being invited to interview does not guarantee you are eligible for visa sponsorship and all offers are conditional on meeting right to work requirements. Further information is available on our application support webpage.
Anonymous shortlisting
We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details such as your name, may be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.
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