OppAttune Research Project Manager

Terms: Fixed-term Contract until 31 March 2026, Part-Time 18.5 hours per week

Closing Date: 15 April 2024 - 12:00 noon

Open Psychology Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

The Open Psychology Research Centre is the research centre of the School of Psychology & Counselling at The Open University. The successful project manager will be based within OPRC supporting the newly European funded OppAttune project working with seventeen international partners. The Centre represents a progressive approach to psychological research, theory and practice that is tightly connected with other social sciences and humanities disciplines. It champions creative, critical and credible psychological research that makes a difference to real social issues, that informs practice, and that inspires a positive vision for living together fairly, equitably and imaginatively. Our engaged research also feeds into scholarship for teaching at the OU.

The Open Psychology Research Centre supported multiple research projects across the school’s three research strands; the Culture and Social Psychology strand (CUSP), the Forensic Cognition Research Group (FCRG) and the Psychology of Health and Well-Being Group (PHEW). OppAttune will run from 2023 to 2026 and is located within CUSP.

The role

The Open University is recruiting a Project Manager to manage the Horizon-Europe and Innovate UK co-funded research project entitled OppAttune: Countering Oppositional Extremism through Attuned Dialogue: Track, Attune, Limit. OppAttune is focused on reducing extreme political narratives and building capacity for democratic dialogue in Europe and beyond.

The project began in April 2023 and will run until March 2026, and you will be responsible for the supporting the deliverables across all eight work packages within the strategic programme from first year reporting, through to communication, dissemination and policy recommendations.

The postholder has the following key responsibilities

1. Responsible for liaison with the scientific coordinator within OPRC at Open University, and two joint administrative coordinators. Liaison and coordination of work packages. Liaison with the Independent Research Advisory Committee. Liaison with OPRC Management Team, FASS-Finance Team and FASS-Research Management Team.
2. Communicating the project using a clearly articulated rolling communications plan across social media, external website and internal communications. Communicating the project to European Commission and Innovate UK.
3. Management and organisation of project deliverables between the three joint coordinators of OppAttune and work package leads. Production of project reports, relating to finance, administration and management of the project – monthly and quarterly. Overseeing review reports at 12, 24 and 36 months. Uploading all information to funding portals.
4. Leading and support project meetings as appropriate, coordinating and maintaining project plans using project management tools. Participate in Steering groups and working groups. Production of minutes and overseeing actions arising out of meetings.

Skills and experience

• Minimum standard of education to Bachelor’s degree level or equivalent
• Experience of working within an international team
• Diplomatic liaison skills.
• Proven track record of successfully delivering research projects, events and ad-hoc pieces of work and experience of planning significant aspects of focused research projects.

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