Cambridge Africa ALBORADA Research Fund Coordinator (Fixed Term)

We are looking for a motivated individual with excellent organisational, written and oral communication skills as well as strong IT skills to join the Cambridge-Africa team to coordinate the ALBORADA Research Fund. The person will have excellent interpersonal skills and a demonstrable ability to develop collaborative working relationships with a range of stakeholders in Cambridge and in Africa. The ability to work under pressure and to tight deadline is also essential. The funds for this post are available until the end of July 2026.

Cambridge-Africa, established in 2008, is a University programme that supports African researchers and promotes mutually beneficial collaborations and equitable partnerships between Africa and Cambridge. The ethos of the programme and its partnerships are based on equity, transparency and trust. Activities are driven by needs identified by African partners in order to address African (research) priorities. One of the key Cambridge-Africa initiatives is the ALBORADA Research Fund, which was established in 2012 with a generous $1 million donation from The ALBORADA Trust, UK. The aim of this Research Fund is to enable principal investigators at the University of Cambridge, across all disciplines, to apply jointly with a partner at a sub-Saharan African university or research institution for grants to initiate and/or strengthen equitable research collaborations. In recognition of the success of the Fund, The ALBORADA Trust awarded an additional £4 million to Cambridge-Africa for the period 2016 to 2026, to support further engagement between Cambridge and Africa on a long-term basis. We seek to recruit a dedicated Coordinator, based in the Department of Pathology who will work closely with other members of the Team and be involved in cross cutting Cambridge-Africa activities. We particularly welcome candidates from a BME background.

Key responsibilities include:

• Updating the call documentation, launching the online call and disseminating the competitive ALBORADA Research Fund call for proposals
• Using existing databases and local knowledge / contacts to match African researchers to Cambridge colleagues
• Reviewing submitted applications and performing quality control checks. Preparing documents and arranging meetings for the award assessment panel
• Communicating effectively with: Cambridge-Africa team; ALBORADA Research Fund Committee; Cambridge and African co-applicants about the outcome of award applications and ongoing progress of the award activities; colleagues in Research Operations Office regarding various aspects of the awards
• Dealing with queries from applicants and awardees
• Supporting researchers to make arrangements for two-way travel between Cambridge and Africa (including obtaining visas, inoculations, malaria prophylaxis, etc.) and engage with awardees throughout and beyond the duration of funding
• Monitoring and evaluation of awards, including writing case studies about awards/awardees
• Assisting with the writing of blogs based on the awards
• Financial monitoring of awards
• Contributing to the wider activities of the Cambridge-Africa Programme, including event organising
• Managing and keeping up to date the high-profile Cambridge-Africa website
• Problem solving

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 31 July 2026 in the first instance.

Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click the 'Apply' button, above.

Informal enquiries about the position can be made to Corinna Alberg (ca392@cam.ac.uk).

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

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