Grants Administrator, Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Position # 576900

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine is a premier academic medical center located in the heart of Richmond. Accounting for almost half of VCU’s sponsored research, the School of Medicine is internationally recognized for patient care and education. VCU School of Medicine comprises 18 clinical departments, eight basic health science departments, and 11 affiliated institutes and centers, and provides preeminent education to physicians and scientists in order to improve the quality of healthcare for humanity. All full-time university staff are eligible for our generous benefits package that includes choices for health, vision, and dental coverage, life-insurance, short and long-term disability coverage, retirement planning, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, significant paid-time off,12 paid holidays, and more. Explore our benefits further here: https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/university-and-academic-professional-benefits/

Summary

The Grant Specialist (Specialist) assists the grants administrator in providing oversight, training, and direct support to cardiology faculty in the compliant administration of sponsored project. The Specialist works directly with investigators, administrators and other research administration staff to provide support for proposal submissions, financial administration of awards and sponsor reporting. The Specialist Provides other services, to include and is not limited to, conducting routine monitoring of fiscal and administrative processes to ensure cardiology is conducting sponsored projects in accordance with established guidelines of both VCU and sponsoring agencies; monitoring spending on sponsored accounts, effort reporting, account deficits, indirect cost recoveries and timeliness of project closeouts.

Typical Duties:

Include but not limited to Proposal Preparation, Research Administration and Compliance Monitoring (Post-Award Grants and Contracts Management)

• Work with department/division administrators and faculty to provide assistance in the preparation of proposals and to troubleshoot electronic grant submission issues. This may involve multiple departments and/or schools.

• Utilize the ONCORE financial system; work with outside sponsors to negotiate all budgets for proposal submission; obtain approval through School of Medicine.

• Develop infrastructure to manage the unique tracking and reporting requirements of various sponsors.

•In accordance with agency requirements performs day to day management of post award finance and administrative activities for assigned research accounts.

- Financial reconciliation of accounts, monitoring payroll allocations, cost sharing, effort reporting, subcontracts, and sponsor invoicing and financial reporting.
- Reviews expenditures and works with assigned investigators to ensure charges applied to sponsored projects are reasonable, allowable, and allocable to an individual award.
- Prepares accurate monthly financial reports and distributes to faculty researchers (PIs) by the third week of each month. Accurate will be defined as total errors not exceeding 5% of the category budget. As part of the reporting process, incumbent reviews accounts for deficit balances, expiring grant dates, and other situations that affect the solvency of accounts.

- Prepares a monthly summary status report of assigned research accounts for the review of Associate Administrator for Research.

- Conducts daily and weekly tasks to maintain updates, financial reports for Federal and Clinical trials showing financial information by PI, direct, indirect and total cost.

- Works closely with Associate Administrator for Research to develop resource and training materials to be utilized by DOIM faculty and staff to improve understanding and compliance in the administration of sponsored projects.

Required Education and Experience

• Demonstrated analytical skills; ability to analyze financial transactions for trends and variances; ability to create reports, tracking tools, and professional documents.
• Experience in budget development, expense forecasting, financial reconciliation, and ability to interpret and apply complex government regulations and contractual terms
• Must be proficient in the use of Word, Excel, and Access, with demonstrated experience using spreadsheets or databases to organize data appropriately for financial analysis and reporting

• Strong problem solving and time management skills including ability to adapt to frequent changes in work assignments, prioritize, and manage competing priorities to meet deadlines
• Must be precise, thorough, and reliable and perform daily activities with minimal supervision.
• Strong problem solving and time management skills including ability to adapt to frequent changes in work assignments, prioritize, and manage competing priorities to meet deadlines
• Excellent customer service skills, written and verbal communication skills, and ability to work as part of a team
• In depth understanding of research administration from proposal development to project closeout, including working knowledge of GAAP and OMB Circulars A-21, A-110, and A-133 and uniform guidelines
• Experience using electronic research administration platforms such as InfoEd, RamsSpot, VCU Research Dashboard, Banner system, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively in a diverse environment.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, business management, or related field; or 2-4 years’ experience in sponsored research administration at a university or comparable setting

• Working knowledge of state or university purchasing, travel, and personnel administration policies and procedures

• General understanding of IRB and regulatory agency requirements pertaining to human subjects research

Job Specific Physical and Cognitive Requirements
Light lifting (less than 20 lb), fast pace, multiple stimulation, intense customer interaction, frequent change, memory, reasoning, hearing, reading, analyzing, logic, and verbal and written communication.

Additional Information

ORP Eligible: - No

Hours / weeks - 40 hours weekly

Days /hours - Monday - Friday, Generally 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Position will remain open until filled

This is a restricted position with no set end date and continued employment is dependent upon project needs, availability of funds, and performance.

The School of Medicine continuously strives for our workplace and learning environment to reflect the demographic and social milieu of the communities we serve. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.