Details
1115947
UCL
17/08/2026
Other - See Job
Full-time; 36.5 hours per week
Not Applicable
Pay
£19.14
£3.58
Description
Role
Unitemps are recruiting for a two Research Support Assistants. This role has an August 17th start date and a projected end date of November 16th 2026. This is a full-time role at 36.5 hours per week. Payment is set at £19.14 per hour + £3.58 holiday pay. This role is UCL Hybrid working with 1 day per week from the office (Wednesday's) and the other days from home/remote.
Context
UCL is a world-leading research-intensive university, often ranked in the top ten in the world, with an annual turnover of well over £1 billion. Our research and innovation portfolio continues to grow in scale and complexity, with record levels of research income and impact achieved last year.
Research and Innovation Services provides support and services for our academics working across the research and innovation lifecycle with a focus on applying for and managing funding and providing professional advice on collaborations and contracts.
The Directorate is comprised of five teams; Award Services, Contract Services, Planning, Insight and Improvement, and Compliance and Assurance and a Joint Research Office, who all work together to deliver a service to support, advise and provide expertise to our academic community for our extensive and varied portfolio of externally funded projects.
Main purpose of the job
To provide comprehensive administrative support across the Award Services team at UCL. This role is responsible for running transactional support operations for the University research and innovation portfolio sponsored by external fundings, including the funding portfolio sponsored by the European Commission framework programmes.
The post holder will be working across the Award Services team to provide sound and timely support in the collection of relevant information from departments and grant holders and in processing the information in an auditable and standardised way. The post holder will be required to work flexibly and be willing to cover the needs of Award Services team members as relevant to prepare for financial audits and financial reports to be submitted to funders.
This is a pivotal role in helping the university and the Award Services team handle a high volume of transactions and applications in the research and innovation portfolio and ensuring the relevant costs are processed according to funders terms and conditions, UCL financial policies and processes. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn about research support, grant management and financial compliance in a world-leading institution.
Duties and responsibilities
The post-holder will contribute to some of the below duties and responsibilities depending on the resourcing requirements needed across the Award Services Team.
Provide comprehensive administrative support across the full research award lifecycle, including pre-award, award-setup, post-award, and research funding assurance activities.
Support the preparation, submission, setup, amendment, management and closure of research awards, ensuring all activities are completed in accordance with UCL policies, funder requirements and service standards.
Maintain accurate and up-to-date award records in UCL and external systems, including Worktribe, MyFinance, funder portals, electronic document management systems and other relevant databases.
Assist with processing award and project changes, including supplements, no-cost extensions, budget virements, currency adjustments, contractual amendments and other approved variations.
Coordinate the collection, organisation and retrieval of documentation required for internal and external audits, assurance reviews and funder compliance activities, ensuring deadlines are met.
Collate and review financial and supporting evidence for audits, including timesheets, HR records, travel claims, invoices and award documentation, ensuring costs are eligible, accurately recorded and compliant with funder terms and conditions.
Examine research-related transactions and expenditure, including journals, transfers, travel, consumables, invoices and other charges, identifying discrepancies, obtaining supporting evidence and facilitating corrective action where required.
Maintain financial and project records in accordance with GDPR, UCL retention schedules, funder requirements and audit standards, ensuring documentation is complete, accessible and audit-ready.
Support due diligence, risk assessment and pre-contracting activities by ensuring required approvals, agreements, partner documentation and compliance checks are completed and recorded.
Work closely with finance and procurement colleagues to support supplier and vendor setup, purchase order management, credit checks, invoice processing, subcontractor payments and the accurate allocation of costs to research projects.
Liaise effectively with Principal Investigators, academic departments, professional services teams, external collaborators and funders to obtain information, resolve queries and support the effective administration of research awards.
Assist with monitoring key milestones, reporting requirements, workflow activities and project deadlines, supporting the timely delivery of award administration and research support services.
Draft correspondence, prepare reports, guidance and administrative documentation, respond to enquiries and communicate important information through email, Teams, meetings, websites, SharePoint and other communication channels.
Organise and support meetings, training sessions and events, including scheduling, preparing documentation, collating agenda items, taking minutes and undertaking research, fact-finding and data-gathering activities as required.
Assist Managers to coordinate communicate and disseminate important information via various channels, including in person, guidance documents, sharepoint and website.
Contribute to a flexible and collaborative team environment by providing cross-functional support and temporary cover across Award Services teams, participating in training and professional development activities, and undertaking other duties consistent with the grade, scope and purpose of the role.
Skills and experience
Qualifications, experience and knowledge
- Educated to A level or equivalent vocational qualification/work experience, with GCSE Maths and English at Grade C or above.
- Experience of working in a flexible team, working collaboratively to deliver team’s work.
- Knowledge of research funding in higher education.
Skills and abilities
- Ability to work methodically, planning, prioritising and managing own workload effectively and in a proactive manner to meet time-critical schedules.
- Good numeracy and data analysis skills with the ability to deal with high volumes of processing while maintaining accuracy.
- High level of literacy comprehension, confidence in understanding, handling and analysing reports, funder terms and similar documents.
- Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills, working with team members and a range of stakeholders to enable delivery.
- Excellent attention to details, ability to spot and correct errors in complex data and written information.
- Excellent IT skills with experience of Microsoft Office suite, including Excel, Word and Outlook.
UCL Ways of Working
- Willingness to identify development needs and ask for help when necessary
- Demonstrates initiative and the ability to use judgement to solve problems when appropriate
- A commitment to customer focus and the need to provide an efficient, professional and effective service to the many contacts both internally, at all levels of the organisation, and externally.
- Take responsibility for own work, ensuring ownership of tasks and seeing them through to completion.
Location
UCL; hybrid working with Wednesday's at the office and the other days from home/remote
Additional information
This job will close for applications at 11.59pm on Thursday August 6th. Interviews will be held shortly after.
*Please note to be eligible to work within this role, you must have the right to work in the UK, be physically based in the UK and be able to travel to our London based office for a RTW check (if required).
*If you have a full-time contract of employment with UCL, you are not able to work through UCL Unitemps at the same time.
Unitemps reserves the right to close this advert for applications prior to the date specified above, if a high volume of suitable applications are received so pleased don't delay applying.
Unitemps payroll is monthly, one month in arrears, please see the payroll dates here.
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