Senior Research Development Associate, Office of Campus Research and Development

Duke University:

 

Duke University was created in 1924 through an indenture of trust by James Buchanan Duke. Today, Duke is regarded as one of America’s leading research universities. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is positioned in the heart of the Research Triangle, which is ranked annually as one of the best places in the country to work and live. Duke has more than 15,000 students who study and conduct research in its 10 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. With about 40,000 employees, Duke is the third largest private employer in North Carolina, and it now has international programs in more than 150 countries.

 

Job Title:  Senior Research Development Associate, Office of Campus Research and Development  (OCRD)

 

Occupational Summary

The Office of Campus Research Development (OCRD), part of the Office of Research and Innovation (OR&I) at Duke University, serves the Duke Campus research community to conceptualize, develop, and write proposals to federal agencies to seek extramural funding. OCRD works across all Campus disciplines, schools, and departments, with the overarching mission to develop high quality, competitive proposals as well as making the proposal development process as straightforward and streamlined as possible. To perform this overarching mission, OCRD works closely with the several units in OR&I, including the Office of Research Support (ORS) and Duke Office of Research Initiatives (DORI) as well as research development liaisons and grants administrators across the university to coordinate and collaborate on proposal development tasks.

 

The Senior Research Development Associate (Sr. RDA) will report to the OCRD Director and will work to support proposal development tasks for this office.

 

Work Performed

• Support the development of individual and complex funding proposals through effective interactions with all involved parties and by providing proposal management, proposal writing/editing, and other requested proposal development support based on OCRD’s menu of services. (60%)
  • Review agency program goals and guidelines to ensure all proposals align with both agency and proposed projects’ goals and capabilities.
  • Work with individuals at all levels in the proposal development process (e.g., Principal Investigators[PIs] and their teams, members within ORCD, Duke leadership, departmental grant managers, ORS representatives) to ensure successful integration of all application components and full compliance with all funding program and sponsor requirements.
  • Manage and meet deadlines of one or more proposals at a given time, ensuring timely and excellent customer service to each.
  • Edit proposals and write or provide writing support for non-scientific/technical sections for complex and individual applications; provide comprehensive editorial review of all sections; provide subject matter expertise for proposal development, when applicable; and independently advise investigators on proposal strategy, content, and organization.

• Contribute to updates and maintenance of OCRD resources (e.g., resources for proposal development). (30%)

• Help identify opportunities to strengthen faculty proposals and work collaboratively to implement solutions, with a particular focus on School/College or Departmental inquiries. (10%)

 

Required Qualifications

• Education/Training and Experience

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in STEM, social sciences, biomedical, or related field. A doctoral degree is highly desirable with demonstration of an understanding and familiarity with a broad range of science or in a technical subject matter.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working with faculty and federally-funded extramural funding in an academic setting. Ideally, this experience should be in a high education academic research development (RD) office or in a private entity that does RD consulting.
• Or an equivalent combination of education and experience.