Engineering Biology Research Project Manager

at  The University of Manchester

The Project Manager will work jointly across two separate projects in the area of ‘Engineering Biology’. The first project is a BBSRC-funded sLoLa programme led by Prof Sophie Nixon (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences) that aims to unearth the ‘rules of life’ that govern the interactions between microbial community members in environmental microbiomes, with the view to develop predictive approaches that can help us to understand and control microbiome function. Drawing on low diversity communities that inhabit geothermal springs, we will interrogate the metabolic, ecological and evolutionary interactions between community members that collectively govern the conversion of CO2-rich industrial waste gases into value-added products.
The second project is an EPSRC-funded programme to develop a new national centre and technical training hub for ‘Biomolecule Engineering’ that is jointly led by a team of 6 Senior Technical Specialists. It brings together a range of research technology platforms that span the fields of biology, chemistry, automation and computation to provide a highly interdisciplinary approach to biomolecule engineering. This new national facility will provide open access to all technology platforms and technical expertise for researchers from both academia and industry and will establish a training centre for biomolecule engineering via user workshops, bespoke training and placement opportunities, online interactive training material and direct placements for apprentices.
The Project Manager will be responsible for the administration of the Engineering Biology projects. They will provide professional management for all aspects of the two projects, including acting as the central liaison point with the individual project leaders from both UoM as well as any industrial partners, in addition to our external funding agencies. The Project Manager will ensure full co-ordination, delivery and communication of activities across all work packages in association with the respective investigator teams. This will include the organisation and coordination of: i) the sLola activities across the university; ii) regular scientific meetings between the members of both teams; iii) secondments and placements; iv). interactions with external industrial and academic partners; v) training workshops; vi) bespoke training programmes; vii) the development of online training videos. They will be responsible for setting up a website to advertise the projects and will work with the ‘Biomolecule Engineering Centre’ team to allow requests for external access and training.
We are committed to creating a fully inclusive and flexible culture, one where everyone can realise their potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation. We believe that if we can positively diversify our staff we will be able to collaborate more effectively and create a more productive environment. If you think you will be a good fit for this role we look forward to hearing from you!

Please refer the Job description for details