Research Development Officer, Division of Research & Innovation

The Research Development (RD) Officer will be a member of the Research Development team in the Division of Research Innovation (DORI) reporting to the Assistant Vice President for Research. The Office of Research Development (ORD) empowers Wayne State University faculty and researchers to pursue bold, competitive funding opportunities that advance discovery and impact.

Through proposal development support, strategic partnership building, and faculty recognition initiatives, ORD provides the infrastructure and expertise researchers need to compete successfully for external funding, helping WSU strengthen its standing as an urban R1 research institution committed to excellence and community impact.

Essential Functions

Project management on large-scale proposals: work with faculty and staff teams to develop well-organized, polished, competitive grant proposals that are responsive to funder requests. Related activities include, but are not limited to:

• Providing grantsmanship guidance.
• Establishing a timeline for items required for proposal submission.
• Drafting templates for proposal and supporting documents.
• Coordinating and collecting required materials from external partners and stakeholders.
• Organizing and running red team reviews.
• Facilitating connections to external partners and partnership management. Develop programming and resources for faculty and staff, such as toolkits, workshops, mentoring programs, etc. with the goal of helping position teams for success in pursuing external research funding. Work with AVP on forecasting and strategic planning for proactively responding to large-scale funding opportunities. Track federal funding opportunities and work with the Communications team to advertise those that are relevant to the WSU community. Work with WSU’s government relations firm on strategic opportunity discovery and matching. Perform other related duties as assigned.