Lead, Research Administration

Summary

The Lead, Research Adminstration manages the review and approval process of new and non-competing federal, state, and private foundation research grant awards on behalf of the Department of Pediatrics through the college's electronic Biomedical Research Assurance Information Network (BRAIN). Will ensure compliance with all federal, sponsor, and institutional policies and guidelines and also serves as a liaison between faculty, Baylor College of Medicine, and sponsors. The Lead, Research Administration participates in pre- and/or post-award grant management activities. This position operates in a high volume, deadline driven work environment.

Job Duties

• Approves all department extramural and intramural grant applications to ensure compliance with sponsor guidelines and federal regulations, certifying summary data in the College's electronic Biomedical Research and Assurance Information Network (BRAIN). This includes finance/budget, compliance, and overall review of each application being sent to an extramural sponsor such as NIH or prime institution.
• Oversight of submissions totals approximately 1400 submissions per year with ~ $131M in funding, including:
  • Ensures compliance aspects of grant proposals are in accordance with federal guidelines such as research conflict of interest, responsible conduct of research, Citi trainings
  • Responsible for developing and implementing department processes and SOPs related to grant/contract/extramural funding submissions
  • Provides pre-award oversight for the administrative and financial operations of grant accounts from submission to funding
  • Trains division administrators and research associates in pre-award processes
• Participates in pre- and/or post-award grant management activities ensuring accuracy.
• Utilizes and integrates data from various sources (BRAIN, CTMS, Department Databases) to provide reporting to leadership (Chair-Department of Pediatrics, TCH Leadership, Administrator-Department of Pediatrics, Vice-Chair for Research-Department of Pediatrics)
• Serves as point-of-contact between sponsors, principal investigators, research staff, and institution.
• Serves as backup department reviewer for the effort reporting system to ensure compliance from faculty and staff.
• Creates and maintains research databases as applicable

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree. Certified Research Administrator certification through the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC) may substitute for the degree requirement.
• Six years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Must be able to communicate effectively with senior leadership.
• Must be able to work independently and meet deadlines.
• Must be able to mutli-task, prioritize, and manage up to 50 grant application reviews at any given time.
• Must have mastery and a broad depth of understanding of the pre-award grant and budget process.
• Must have experience with a variety of grant mechanisms (such as R01, F31/F32, U01, and Career Development Awards) as well as a variety of sponsors, (such as but not limited to American Cancer Society, NIH, CDC, Dept. of Defense, and industry).
• Must have a working knowledge of sponsor application submission systems such as ASSIST, Workspace, and Proposal Central.
• Should be considered an expert on federal and state regulations (NIH, NSF, DSHS, CDC)and serve as a resource for faculty investigators who are submitting grant applications.
• Requires good reading, writing, and organizational skills, the ability to analyze and problem solve, and a high degree of flexibility in being able to respond to a fast-paced work environment.
• Must have critical thinking skills, be able to operate independently with little to no supervision.

Baylor College of Medicine requires employees to be fully vaccinated -subject to approved exemptions-against vaccine-preventable diseases including, but not limited to, COVID-19 and influenza.

Baylor College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Equal Access Employer.