Research Grant Accounting Recovery Leader — Higher Education

The mandate

Government, philanthropic and industry-funded research awards carry different eligibility periods, matching requirements, intellectual-property conditions and indirect-cost rules, yet project ledgers rely on shared cost centres and late faculty certifications. Payroll effort, equipment use and collaborator charges cannot always be traced to award terms. The grant-accounting leader departed after sponsors questioned unspent balances and unsupported cost transfers.

The interim starts within three weeks for nine months, covering award triage, sponsor reporting, year end, two subsequent cycles and permanent-leader induction. Award acceptance, budget revision, staff reassignment, equipment transfer, collaborator invoice, milestone change and no-cost extension become controlled accounting events. Five weeks are protected for handover, and the term cannot extend into research strategy or fundraising.

Exit requires one award register, obligation and restriction mapping, eligible-cost rules, approved allocation bases, payroll and equipment evidence, controlled transfers, reconciled deferred or restricted balances, sponsor reporting and three cycles within tolerance. The successor must resolve an unseen staff transfer plus delayed collaborator milestone and defend treatment to an internal sponsor-compliance panel.

The leader may hold unsupported charges, require principal-investigator certification, freeze retrospective transfers, sequence remediation, approve delegated grant journals and control MYR 28 million within the recovery envelope. Researchers own scientific activity; Procurement and Payroll own source transactions; the Controller retains accounting policy; sponsors determine award compliance; assurance providers retain independent conclusions.

Research-priority setting, grant writing, scientific validation, intellectual-property negotiation, sponsor lobbying and replacement of the research administration platform are excluded. The interim may interpret approved award terms operationally but cannot provide legal advice. Unsupported costs and missed milestones must remain visible rather than being shifted to another award or unrestricted funds without authorised disposition.

Why this seat is open

Award growth outpaced the university’s ability to preserve restriction and eligibility evidence below aggregate faculty budgets, then the accountable leader left during sponsor review. Temporary authority must restore award-level discipline through real reporting cycles and leave a successor capable of resolving cross-faculty changes without compromising research independence.

What you will own

• Reconcile awards, amendments, budgets, periods, sponsors, principal investigators, collaborators and reporting obligations.
• Translate restrictions and eligibility rules into controlled expense, payroll, equipment, indirect-cost and milestone treatment.
• Reperform allocation bases and effort certifications for shared laboratories, staff, services and research infrastructure.
• Govern cost transfers, budget changes, no-cost extensions, collaborator charges, unspent balances and close-out evidence.
• Separate conditional, restricted, deferred, refundable and unrestricted balances by authoritative award facts.
• Exercise a staff transfer, equipment relocation, failed milestone, late invoice and sponsor-approved scope change.
• Transfer recovery after three controlled cycles and successor adjudication of an unfamiliar cross-award allocation case.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior grant-accounting authority in a research university, institute or similarly sponsor-funded organisation.
• Governed government, philanthropic and industry award restrictions, eligible costs, matching and reporting obligations.
• Reconstructed payroll effort, shared-cost allocations, equipment use, collaborator charges and retrospective transfers.
• Resolved deferred, restricted, refundable and unspent balances under sponsor and external-assurance challenge.
• Worked with principal investigators and research leaders without taking scientific, fundraising or sponsor authority.
• Handed recovered award reporting to permanent teams through repeated live sponsor cycles and difficult cost-allocation scenarios.

Non-negotiables

• Available within three weeks for Kuala Lumpur leadership and targeted travel to major research campuses.
• Direct recovery of restricted research-grant accounting is required; general university finance alone is insufficient.
• No undisclosed relationship may involve material sponsors, collaborators, grant advisers or assurance providers.
• Will hold unsupported research charges visibly rather than move them between awards to protect sponsor relationships.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a shared research cost whose convenient allocation failed an award restriction.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you correct retrospective transfers without concealing the original control failure?
3. 49 words maximum. Which staff-and-equipment move would you use to test the incoming grant leader?