Manager of Research Development: Institute of Energy & Environment - Office of Research, Innovation, & Economic Development

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Manager, Research Development - Institute of Energy & Environment

Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development, Research Informatics

Exempt, Market Range 13

Job Summary/Essential Job Functions

The Research Development Manager will work with the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Innovation Initiatives (AVCRII) and Senior Director of Research Development towards achieving the university’s goal of increasing cross-disciplinary research, scholarship, and education through a combination of extramural funding, meaningful industry partnerships and engagement, and technology development.  The RD manager will plan, implement, and oversee research initiatives in support of the IEE Gateway and related activities.  The RD Manager will provide support to faculty research programs and teams, identify strategic funding and research opportunities matching these to faculty expertise,  liaise with the Research Development team to provide grant proposal support for new research initiatives in the broad areas of energy and environment, coordinate and lead team-building activities across research, scholarship, and education disciplines to facilitate the growth and sustainability of trans-disciplinary engagement across UT, lead in the tracking and evaluation of outcomes and implement strategic response(s)/changes when necessary, and work with the AVCRII and Senior Director to build new partnerships for research, scholarly activities, and industry-associated activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Team Building & Proposal Development

• Works independently to provide personalized consultation, strategy development, and substantive guidance to faculty teams to support their research, scholarship, and creative activities in areas aligned with UTK’s Institute for Energy and Environment Innovation Gateway. Provides consultations for single opportunities or long-term, multi-agency funding strategies.

• On large or complex proposals, provides comprehensive proposal development support, including overall project management, writing and editing proposal content, organizing red team reviews, managing document collection, and coordinating with other support team members to ensure all required documents are complete, compliant, and responsive prior to proposal deadline.

• On smaller proposals, provides iterative, substantive edits to improve the strength of the proposal narrative, as well as advice on navigating additional requirements, internal processes, and other resources available to faculty.

• Ensures return on investment of UT's Energy and Environment Innovation Gateway seed funds by providing proposal guidance and ongoing collaborative assistance to internal seed grant awardees to leverage internal funding into external awards.

Programs, Events, and Training

• Manages one or more programs designed to build faculty collaborations (e.g., SPARKS-IEE, Community of Scholars) and strengthens faculty skills related to external funding (e.g., team building, proposal writing).

• Gathers and interprets new developments in federal and foundation funding guidelines and priorities to design and deliver workshops and presentations on topics related, but not limited, to general and sponsor-specific proposal development.

• Upon request, designs customized programming in support of the IEE Gateway.

Portfolio Management and Special Projects

• Manages one or more Innovation Gateway research and scholarship portfolio