Description

Please note that this job is open only to current members of staff of Cardiff University who are eligible for redeployment.

Internal Redeployment Only - Research Manager
The Research Service

The Research Service is seeking to appoint a fixed-term Research Manager based in the School of Psychology (PSYCH), to lead and support the delivery of services provided to academics.

The Research Manager will be an integral member of the PSYCH research support team located in Tower Building, Park Place. The postholder will be part of the wider Research Service in the College of Biomedical Life Sciences (BLS). The post holder will support the delivery of the Research Service’s research professional service in the School of Psychology, providing advice, guidance and support, leading projects within this area, and will report to the BLS Head of Service Delivery. They will work with colleagues across the Research Service on the development of consistent processes which support academics and researchers to achieve excellent research outcomes, whilst minimising bureaucracy, adopting appropriate risk-based approaches, and placing researchers at the centre of service delivery. The post holder will work with senior leaders in PSYCH and the Research Service, providing leadership and specialist input on matters of research and innovation strategy, support for development and submission of grants, policy and management processes, open access, REF, and supporting the general activities and culture of the School.

A positive, collegiate, and compassionate approach will be vital in the role, and the postholder will lead by example in exhibiting positive behaviours and promoting a values-led approach to people leadership, line management, and effective service delivery and collaboration.

The post is full-time (35 hours per week) and fixed-term basis until 31 July 2027. The role is fixed-term post to cover secondment.

Salary: £41,064 - £46,049 per annum (Grade 6)

Interested candidates can contact the Head of Service Delivery for BLS College, Dr Vanessa Davies, daviesvj@cardiff.ac.uk for an informal conversation about the role.

Closing date: Monday 2 February 2026

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds. We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working on campus you may spend some time working from another location, e.g. your home. The University is committed to offering this flexibility, wherever the role and business need allows, supporting work-life balance.

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.

Job Description

Working as a Research Manager in the School of Psychology (PSYCH), adviser to the BLS College and Research and Innovation Team, you will have responsibility for supporting the Head of Service Delivery for your College, delivering activities and services to meet operational and customer service requirements of PSYCH. You will provide advice and guidance to support our academics, researchers and Professional Services team members in PSYCH, across the BLS College Research and Innovation team and more widely, to facilitate achievement of excellent research and innovation related outcomes. You will have a proactive customer service approach to undertaking duties in the role, ensuring the service provided by you and colleagues actively mitigates risks and issues as appropriate. You will lead and manage improvement projects and provide support to overcome identified issues.

You will work in a highly collaborative manner with your Research Service and academic colleagues, including the Director of Research and relevant professional services colleagues in PSYCH, such as the School Manager, and across the wider College team, taking a key role in ensuring provision of a high quality and consistent research and innovation support service for PSYCH. You will help ensure academics and researchers receive appropriate advice and guidance, while managing key processes and activities as required, actively modelling and promoting the behaviours instituted in the University's positive research culture. You will have direct line management responsibility for the PSYCH Postgraduate Research Administrator and, where required, will provide leadership to distributed project teams. You will support the development of Research Service colleagues within your remit to enable them to provide an excellent service, as required by the role.


The Research Service

Cardiff is an ambitious and innovative university located in a beautiful and thriving capital city. Our world-leading research was ranked 5th for quality amongst UK universities in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework and we provide an educationally outstanding experience for our 30,000 students. With an annual budget in excess of £500 million and around 6,000 staff, Cardiff is a member of the Russell Group of the 24 leading UK research-intensive universities. The University has 24 academic schools grouped into three colleges: Biomedical & Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

The University’s ambition is to rank consistently among the top 100 universities in the world. Cardiff is also developing its Innovation System through a focused programme of investment in people and infrastructure. Research funding secured from competitive, external sources exceeds £100 million annually and the University aims to grow this further through winning grants from a wide range of national and global sources.

The Research Service supports the University’s research community in initiating and delivering research and innovation activities. Led by the Director, Vanessa Cuthill, we provides services via over 100 expert staff organised in five specialist teams: Research Grants Office; Research Integrity, Governance and Ethics; Research Development; Research Commercialisation and Impact; Research Strategy and Operations and Business Engagement and Partnerships. The Department works closely with academic and professional services staff from all areas of the institution.

Key Duties

• To support the development, oversight and delivery of research and innovation support to PSYCH, ensuring high quality service is provided by colleagues within BLS College and Research Delivery Team, including through the line management responsibility required by the role.
• To provide excellent support (including oversight of other colleagues in your team in the provision of excellent support) within the following key areas of research and innovation support:
• Developing applications and grant proposals – provision of advice and guidance to academic colleagues, as appropriate.
• Costing and pricing and submission of proposals
• Regular monitoring and reporting of research activity, ensuring alignment with the School’s research strategy and the College’s and University’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ensuring accurate and reliable records are maintained of School research and innovation related activity.
• Supporting ethical review and practice of research activity
• Publication and management of research outputs and working with colleagues in the Library Service to ensure effective Open Access support for the School, including for document submission, monitoring and compliance.
• Supporting work for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) including output peer review, impact case studies and gathering of data for the School’s People, Culture and Environment statement.
• To develop and maintain the School’s intranet webpages relating to research and innovation.
• To contribute proactively to the development of the School’s research strategy, policies and operational plans.
• To support priorities identified by the school(s) you support which align to research and innovation by mutual agreement with school leadership and your line manager, e.g. ensuring high quality support for research committees and development and delivery of local schemes.
• To contribute as an active citizen of your School and College community, including activities not directly related to research and innovation, where these do not interfere with the provision of research and innovation support, such as supporting open days and/or training and meetings in the school, where agreed with your line manager.
• To line manage staff to provide efficient and excellent research and innovation professional service support to colleagues within your remit, managing workloads of staff to deliver a high-quality service with consistent processes and ways of working to ensure resilience of the service, including managing performance, induction and staff development.
• To support the Head of Service Delivery to deliver strategic goals through high quality service delivery, adapting workplans as required to enable change and delivery as necessary.
• To deputise for the Head of Service Delivery where relevant.
• To work collaboratively with other teams in the Research Service and contribute through Research Delivery Groups to ensure high quality service is available to your school(s) from across the range of support services in research and innovation and with other professional services - IT, Finance, etc - and other School-based professional services - to ensure a whole-University approach to facilitating research is enabled
• To support the development of a positive research culture for research and innovation professional services, modelling positive behaviours through all interactions with colleagues and through a highly professional, organised and proactive approach to work.

Key Duties (continued)

• To be an active contributor to Research Service-wide process improvement, ensuring you provide academic colleagues with up to date and accurate information about processes.
• To work in a collaborative and collegiate manner with colleagues in the BLS College Research and Innovation Team, working to promote consistent ways of working across all schools and to provide resilience across the service by supporting service delivery in areas outside your school(s) (e.g. to cover colleagues' absence)
• To communicate effectively with the academics and researchers within your school(s), ensuring academics have access to policies and procedures governing research and innovation processes, and helping them to navigate the activity they need to undertake.
• To take responsibility for resolving issues independently within all aspects of the remit of the role.
• To plan and deliver specific projects in the field of professional support for research, co-ordinating and supervising project teams created as needed.
• To use standard reports and query functions in key systems to support the school(s), analysing results and advising the school leadership as appropriate.
• To provide academics and researchers with advice and guidance on the use of institutional research systems and processes, ensuring your knowledge of relevant systems and processes is up-to-date.

General Duties

• Abide by all University policies and undergo appropriate personal and professional development.
• Perform other duties which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.
• Uphold the Professional Services Values & Behaviours or local equivalent.
• To ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties.
• To ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements in respect of equality and diversity, data protection, copyright and licensing, security, financial and other University policies, procedures and codes as appropriate.
• To take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourself and of other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work in accordance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, EC directives and the University’s Safety, Health and Environment Policies and procedures and to cooperate with the University on any legal duties placed on it as the employer.



Important note: It is the University’s policy to use the person specification as a key tool for short-listing. Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL of the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable. As part of the application process you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement. Please ensure that the evidence you are providing corresponds with the numbered criteria outlined below. Your application will be considered based on the information you provide under each element.

When attaching the supporting statement to your application profile, please ensure that you name it with the vacancy reference number, e.g. Supporting Statement for 21288BR.


Essential Criteria

Qualifications and Education
1. Degree/NVQ 4 or equivalent Professional membership/experience

Knowledge, Skills and Experience
2. Substantial experience of working within a research and innovation support role, in particular the development of direct support for academics and PGRs
3. Able to demonstrate professional knowledge within research and innovation support to give advice and guidance to internal and external customers
4. Proven experience in developing new processes and procedures

Customer Service, Communication and Team Working
5. Ability to communicate conceptually detailed and complex information effectively and professionally with a wide range of people
6. Experience of managing the work of a team, supporting individuals, demonstrating compassionate leadership and dealing with performance and welfare issues
7. Evidence of ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered
8. Proven ability to develop networks in order to contribute to long term developments

Planning, Analysis and Problem solving
9. Evidence of ability to solve expansive problems using initiative and creativity; and propose both practical and innovative solutions
10. Evidence of ability to undertake and deliver specific projects and supervise short term project teams

Desirable Criteria

1. Postgraduate/Professional qualification
2. Experience of working in a Higher Education environment
3. Fluency in Welsh, written and oral