Senior Grants Specialist

**Your role**:
You will be part of the Grants Team, which consists of staff involved in the end-to-end implementation of a particular CfA or Prizes Competition. The Grant Team takes care of the quality assurance of the processes and coordinates and formulates input to the Evaluation Board. It comprises the Call Coordinator and Senior Grants Specialist as leads of the team, complemented by the Grants Management Officer, Technical Officers, Financial Officer and Legal Officer. The Call Coordinator and Technical Officers are technical or scientific staff based in other Departments and are responsible for content driven aspects.

As Senior Grants Specialist you will be pivotal in the successful rollout of the new grants procedures at ECMWF and, together with the Call Coordinator, you will play a central role in steering the successful implementation. The Senior Grants Specialist also supports the further development and integration of the grant funding scheme within ECMWF.

During the ramp-up phase, the you will have a strong hands-on role in all different aspects of our grants activities. As the roll-out of the funding scheme progresses, you will line-manage a Grants Management Officer (a new position also to be recruited), who will focus on the implementation aspects.

Besides ECMWF colleagues, the Senior Grants Specialist will interact with grant holders and the European Commission. Exchanging experiences and best practices with other international organisations that are implementing grants is going to be a likely part of the role as well.

Occasional travel to ECMWF offices in Reading and to locations within Europe may be required.

**About Grants as funding instrument at ECMWF**:
**About the Section**:
The Procurement Section in the Administration Department works with scientific and technical experts, budget holders and management across the organization to procure goods and services to support ECMWF’s core and externally funded activities. With the deployment of funding actions through grants at ECMWF, this new role as Senior Grants Specialist has been created.

**About ECMWF**:
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a world-leader in weather and environmental forecasting. As an international organisation we serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions and data that is critical for understanding and solving the climate crisis. We function as a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions, holding one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world. The success of our activities builds on the talent of our scientists and experts, strong partnerships with 35 Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies and machine learning across our operations.

ECMWF has developed a strong partnership with the European Union and has been entrusted with the implementation and operation of the Destination Earth Initiative and the Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the Copernicus Programme. Other areas of work include High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools that enable ECMWF to extend provision of data and products covering weather, climate, air quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

**Your responsibilities**:
Reporting to the Head of Procurement you will be responsible for:

- Preparation, publication, evaluation, selection, and signature stages of the CfA with the support of the Grant team:

- Contributing to the strategic planning of CfAs
- Assessing the requirements and checking the level of spend provided by the Technical Officer.
- Reviewing all CfA documents and oversee the publication accordingly on the dedicated portal.
- Overseeing and manage the CfA process, e.g. eligibility checks, record management, rejection of and feedback to applicants.
- Managing communication with applicants.
- Overseeing the grant agreement preparation and negotiation process:

- Assessing, reviewing and coordinating negotiations, in consultation with the EB, Budget Holder and Grant team.
- Managing preparation of grant agreements in coordination with the Grant team.
- Acting as member of the Evaluation Board (EB) and as Joint secretary:

- Preparing EB reports.
- Coordinating EB meetings.
- Drafting EB minutes.
- Advising and proposing recommendations.
- Overseeing the agreement implementation phase and managing the administration of agreements.
- Supervising, as line manager, the Grant Management Officer.
- Ensuring the overall quality and compliance with the grant processes.
- Contributing to the continued development and improvement of the process, guidelines and approaches relating to the implementation of the calls with the support of Grant team.
- Contributing to other activities of the Procurement and Contract Management teams, as needed.

**What we're lookin