Grants Assistant (Post Award)

Grants Assistant (Post Award)

Reports to: Senior Grants Manager (Operations)

This is a full-time, permanent position on Crick terms and conditions of employment.

Job Summary

The Francis Crick Institute ("the Crick”) is a partnership between the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the Wellcome Trust, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London and King’s College London. It is a registered charity whose purpose is to conduct biomedical research into all aspects of human health and disease.

The position of Grants Assistant (Post Award) is a key role in the Grants team, forming part of the Financial Planning and Analytics function (FP&A) and managing the ~£140m Crick grant portfolio.

Reporting to the Senior Grants Manager (Operations), the Grants Assistant (Post Award) will process financial information into Workday, onboard new grants, and assist in processing new customer invoices, credit notes, ensuring that grant invoices and budgets are entered promptly whilst also ensuring that all invoices meet the governance requirements of the Crick and our external funders. The team also undertake other tasks related either to Crick or Funder reporting requirements and the post holder will be expected to support these as and when required.

The role has a strong focus on processing and handling data and on building strong relationships with colleagues in the Science and other Operations teams through excellent communication, working collaboratively to resolve queries effectively and efficiently. Applicants do not need to be a full or part-qualified accountant, but must be able to work accurately and be a ‘self-starter’ able to work without constant supervision across a number of tasks in a dynamic and time-constrained environment, managing their own workload and contributing to the success of the Grants Post Award function as a whole.

The Crick prides itself on being a dynamic and inclusive place to work. The successful applicant will be able to access the following benefits:

• Competitive salary package with pension contribution up to 16%

• Brand new, state-of-the-art offices with a fun and engaging culture

• 39 days off (28 days holiday + 8 bank holidays + additional 3 days over Xmas/New Year)

• Wide-range of Crick training courses available

• Flexible hybrid working policy

• Life insurance cover of 4x salary

• Annual travel season ticket loan

• Subsidised canteen and coffee shop

• Herman Miller chair and a choice of hardware/OS

• Join in with Crickster quizzes, 5-a-side football, and much more

Key Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

• Support the Grant Managers in administration of a varied research grant portfolio.
• Support the review of projects to monitor budgets, income and expenditure and ensure early identification of significant variances (budget under/overspends, ineligible costs, overhead recovery etc.)
• Proactive triage of all Grant related queries, ensuring timely communication through to resolution
• Support for the reconciliation of Projects to General Ledger statements extracted from Workday Financials.
• Prepare interim and final claims for expenditure, working to tight deadlines where necessary
• Set up of new grants and customer in Workday validating to Grant Award Letters, Contracts or Gift Agreements.
• Set up and maintenance of project milestones in Workday, with responsibility for accurately recording these in line with Crick and Funder requirements
• Assistance with regards to progress and completion of project audits
• Build and maintain strong relationships with Science and Operations teams across the organisation
• Support the Senior Grants Manager (Operations) in the overall achievement of team objectives
• Ad hoc responsibilities and projects as required by management, funders and other stakeholders, as directed by the line manager dependent on team workload and priorities

Skills & Experience

The successful applicant should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values: bold, imaginative, open, dynamic and collegial, in addition to the following:

Essential:

• Practical experience of financial accounting and administration, preferably within a grant-funded environment

• Good written and oral communication skills
• Proven interpersonal skills, able to engage with people at all levels both internally and externally
• Proven ability to work accurately with attention to detail, multi-task and meet tight deadlines. Strong organisational and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent attention to detail, with a drive to improve financial processes wherever possible
• A good team player, willing to be flexible and take on a range of activities and looking to learn and develop within the role
• IT literate with sound MS Office skills, especially Excel and Word
• High standard of integrity, confidentiality and discretion
• Ability to work within a hybrid work environment, which current comprises 3 days per week working from the Crick’s award-winning building

Desirable:

• Experience of working in a research environment, grant-funded organisation or NHS
• Comfort in working in a diverse, dynamic and complex organisation
• Experience of using Workday Financials or similar Finance system
• Ability to extract, manipulate and model financial data to perform analysis and draw conclusions
• An interest or affinity in natural science