Research Dev Associate III
University of Utah
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Job summary
University of Utah seeks an experienced Research Development Associate III to support early-career faculty scholars in grantsmanship, proposal development, and research career guidance. The role focuses on individualized edits, consultation, curriculum contribution, and resource identification within VPCAT.
The position emphasizes collaboration with faculty, staff, and sponsors, and operates in a hybrid environment with some in-office requirements.
Qualifications
- Master's Degree or Bachelor's degree plus four years of related experience.
- Experience in grant development and research support.
- Strong editing and communication skills.
Responsibilities
- Provide grantsmanship review and substantive editing for faculty proposals.
- Lead grant submission consultations and planning with faculty scholars.
- Develop and refine curriculum related to grant writing and research development.
- Identify funding opportunities and partner resources for faculty scholars.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
The University of Utah Vice President's Clinical and Translational (VPCAT) Research Scholars Program is seeking an experienced Research Development Associate III (RDA) to support the research and career development of early-career faculty scholars.
VPCAT is a two-year faculty mentoring and career development program designed to help early-career clinical and translational researchers develop the skills, mentorship, and experience needed to become successful, funded investigators. VPCAT provides integrated support in scientific career development, grant writing and management, and leadership development through its Matrix Mentoring Model that includes scientific, senior, peer, self, and staff mentorship.
This role focuses on providing individualized grantsmanship review, proposal consultation, education, and research development support to faculty scholars. Faculty scholars develop the scientific content; the RDA helps them strengthen how they organize, communicate, and align their research ideas with sponsor expectations while building their grant writing skills. The RDA will also contribute to VPCAT curriculum, research-development resources, funding landscape awareness, partnerships, and program improvement.
- Individualized faculty scholar grantsmanship review and substantive editing.
- Grant development consultation, proposal planning, and resource navigation.
- Grants and grant management-related curriculum development, teaching, and educational resources.
- Funding opportunity, sponsor policy, and research-development resource identification.
With strong knowledge of research development, this role independently implements a wide range of strategic, proactive, and capacity building activities designed to enable and enhance research and may include strategic research advancement, communication of research and research opportunities, enhancement of collaboration and team science, and proposal development. May train other Research Development Associates.
Applicants must demonstrate the ability to perform the essential functions of the position. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Perform substantive review and editing of faculty scholars' research proposal narratives for organization, clarity, logical flow, thematic consistency, responsiveness to sponsor requirements, and reviewer perspective.
- Assess proposal materials for responsiveness to sponsor requirements and identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities to strengthen the overall presentation.
- Provide constructive feedback that helps faculty scholars strengthen their applications and develop their own grant writing skills.
- Review and interpret funding opportunities, sponsor instructions, and review criteria to help faculty scholars translate requirements into an application strategy.
- Participate in and lead grant submission consultations with faculty scholars and, when appropriate, departmental pre-award staff and other research-support personnel.
- Help scholars identify application needs, gaps, resources, and realistic submission timelines.
- Recognize questions that require expertise outside the RDA's role and connect faculty scholars with appropriate institutional, sponsor, scientific, regulatory, or administrative resources.
- Collaborate with VPCAT personnel to develop, refine, and evaluate curriculum related to grant writing, research development, and grant preparation and management.
- Develop educational tools and resources that translate sponsor requirements and grantsmanship principles into practical guidance.
- Teach or facilitate curriculum sessions within their areas of expertise.
- Identify and communicate relevant funding opportunities, sponsor announcements, policy changes, and research resources.
- Help faculty scholars navigate VPCAT and institutional resources.
- Develop and maintain practical grant-development tools, examples, and guidance informed by sponsor requirements, successful applications, and recurring scholar needs.
- Work collaboratively with VPCAT staff, faculty mentors, scholars, institutional partners, and research-support personnel while maintaining clear role boundaries.
- Contribute research development expertise to VPCAT partnerships and collaborative initiatives.
- Identify recurring faculty scholar needs, grant development challenges, and funding changes that may warrant new resources or program approaches.
Does not write scientific proposals or replace scientific mentors or content experts.
Does not replace departmental pre-award or budget development functions.
Does not manage submission systems (e.g., Cayuse).
- Proficient with all the duties and responsibilities of a Research Development Associate II
- Serve as institutional representatives to external visitors representing the broader portfolio.
- Interact with political and corporate partners related to research initiatives at institution.
- Spearheads strategic research initiatives by acting as a key partner with initiative directors to form strategic direction and guide initiatives.
- Pro-actively seeks new opportunities to grow and expand the University's strategic research mission.
- Coordinate pre-submission peer reviews of proposal drafts, particularly the multi-PI and very large/complex proposals.
- Develops and Executes communication strategies to inform internal and external stakeholders of research operations.
- May participate as key personnel.
- Build competitive proposal teams for MPI applications.
- Consistently works on highly complex problems requiring independent action and decision making.
- Must determine best course of action to resolve problems and frequently makes recommendations for improvement.
- Knows how to apply theory and put it into practice with in-depth understanding of the professional field.
This job description is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to the job.
Nearly Continuously: Office environment.
Nearly Continuously: Sitting, hearing, listening, talking. Often: Repetitive hand motion (such as typing), walking. Seldom: Bending, reaching overhead.
- Master's Degree or Bachelor's degree + four years of related experience or equivalency (one year of education can be substituted for two years of related work experience).
- Applicants must demonstrate the potential ability to perform the essential functions of the job as outlined in the position description.
- Experience in grant development, research development, scientific writing, or related area.
- Substantive editing and writing skills, with the ability to improve organization, clarity, consistency, and narrative flow.
- Ability to interpret funding opportunities, sponsor instructions, and review criteria and translate them into practical guidance.
- Experience providing consultation, education, or constructive feedback to faculty or other professionals.
- Strong organizational and communication skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines independently.
- Familiarity with federal research funding, particularly federal mechanisms, requirements, and peer review.
- Analytical judgment, including the ability to identify what matters most, recognize gaps or inconsistencies, and distinguish high-priority concerns from lower-priority details.
- Experience working in an academic research environment and an understanding of the complementary roles of investigators, scientific mentors, research development professionals, and research administrators.
- Curiosity and adaptability, with the ability to learn unfamiliar research areas, funding mechanisms, and sponsor requirements.
- A consultative approach to faculty development: someone who asks good questions, offers constructive recommendations, and recognizes when additional expertise is needed.
PRN46192B
Full Time
This role typically follows a M-F schedule during standard business hours. This position supports and contributes to a wide variety of external grants with different deadlines. Some nights and weekends may be required, depending on business needs. This is a hybrid position with some required days in the office.
02508 - VPCAT
Campus
$78,300 to $91,000
12/31/2026
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