Research Development Faculty Specialist

The Research Development Faculty Specialist (RDFS) is a non-tenure track faculty member who participates in research development activities conducted by the Associate Dean of Research in UMD’s College of Information Studies in support of projects, proposals, centers, and special initiatives. The mission of the research development team is to catalyze the College’s research enterprise with an emphasis on responsiveness to research opportunities, emerging opportunities, and providing support for College researchers. The team collaborates to enable high impact individual and team research and facilitate research excellence, streamline proposal development, promote cross-campus research communications and collaborations, facilitate collaborations with other institutions, conduct workshops and training, develop research portfolio analytics, and implement metrics for tracking/ optimizing success.

UMD’s College of Information Studies addresses issues at the confluence of information, technology, and people to enable people to improve their lives and life opportunities with information. College research includes a multidisciplinary mix of single PI and complex large-scale multi-College and multi-institutional opportunities with funding from a variety of sources. The RDFS helps position the College for emerging funding opportunities and works as part of a team providing support for College researchers.

The RDFS will engage in strategic, proactive, catalytic, and capacity-building activities to facilitate individual faculty members, teams of researchers, and research administrators in creating relationships, attracting funding, and developing and implementing strategies that increase research impact. The RDFS may initiate and nurture partnerships and alliances within and outside of the College and will build and implement strategic services and collaborative resources.

The RDFS will provide support for faculty and research groups. Activities will include faculty outreach and development, research team building, scouting of relevant extramural opportunities, proposal planning, scoping and coordination, pre-award consultations, hands-on proposal development, proposal review, and coaching/ mentoring. The RDFS may develop specific expertise in opportunity management, team development, aspects of proposal production, or communications.

The ideal candidate will have: a strong research background, experience working in teams, fluency and enthusiasm for research development, and knowledge of the academic funding enterprise. Successful candidates will be detail-oriented, self-motivated and have excellent skills in project management, grant and technical writing, and document production. Expertise in developing and maintaining on-line resources and data management is also sought. Candidates should have an advanced degree (or equivalent experience/training) and direct experience in writing competitive proposals relevant to the College’s research portfolio.

Required Qualifications/Competencies

• D. (information science field preferred); or M.Sc. plus 2 years experience; or B.Sc./B.A. plus 5 years experience.
• Academic background and experience in selected area of research.
• Research development proposal writing experience preferably at an academic institution.
• Direct experience writing competitive research proposals relevant to the scope of the College of Information Studies’ research portfolio.
• Excellent skills in grant and technical writing.
• Experience coordinating and managing complex proposal submissions.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strong ability to think creatively and independently on concepts requiring advanced analytical skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with diverse groups to achieve results.
• Strong ability to work collaboratively with internal and external peers, managers, and teams.
• Proven program planning and management of projects.
• Strong ability to be well-organized with the ability to set priorities and meet deadlines.
• Detail-oriented and self-motivated.

Preferred Qualifications/Competencies

• Ability to analyze and present information for different end-users.
• Experience working with foundations and writing foundation funding proposals