Grants Management Specialist

The Final date to receive applications:

13 Sept 2026

The Grants Management Specialist will provide support in the administration of national and international research grant awards. She/he will be responsible for the smooth handling of the research and financial management portfolio within the Research Grants Unit. The portfolio revolves around the pre-award, due diligence and grants and contracts management and post-award phases. This includes the administration of a number of research grants;

participate in multi-disciplinary teams preparing and compiling research grant proposals; reviewing cooperative agreements and policies, project setup, preparing financial and progress reports for research investigators, collaborators and external funders; compliance and institutional reporting obligations. In addition, the Grants Management Specialist will be responsible for maintaining grants databases, financial reconciliations, creating boiler templates and coordination and support activities. The position requires high level analytical skills, be deadline driven, attention to detailed orientated and multi-tasking skills.

Grants Management Specialist will support both AHRI’s operating sites i.e. Somkhele and Durban.

The position will report to the AHRI grants managers and dotted line to their assigned faculty members.

• First point of contact for principal investigators (PIs) seeking support with research funding
• Offers info sessions, grantsmanship, application guides for major competitions, and various research funding options.
• Advises on rules, regulations and submission procedures for grant applications opportunities.
• Check eligibility

• Provide proposal and budget development support services to faculty, senior and early-career researchers.
• Liaises with collaborators and funders when necessary.
• Coordinate discussions around the application and budget with various stakeholders including AHRI research core departments for their input.
• Provide boiler templates and draft pieces of work to support standard and consistent language.
• Provide expertise in budget development and appropriate justifications to describe the expertise of personnel on the project and why other budget items are being requested.
• Maintains necessary records, files, reports, databases, and resource materials.
• Involved in smooth and timely submission of grant applications

• Involved in the coordination of the just-in-time requests from funders.
• Coordinate with the project team and its collaborators on action items
• Provide assistance to Faculties and Researchers in drafting and/or collating scientific and non-scientific information such as other support, biographical information etc.

• Coordinate due diligence requests routed to AHRI.
• Ensure that all relevant departments at AHRI are aware and provide the appropriate input.
• Perform due diligence on other institutions that we do business with such as sub awardees.

• Review and ensure notice of awards are correct.
• Check if there is any deviation in proposal budget vs final approved budget.
• Ensure there is a system in place to manage AHRI’s reporting obligations.
• Maintain a contact list for the program and grants management specialist details.
• Complete agreement summary form
• Review Intellectual property and report deviation from institutional policy.
• Ensure and coordinate all grants extension and amendments are in place before the grant end date.
• Review VAT requirements.

• Engage with the project PI and team on the next steps…