The Faculty of Law is the coordinator of several large externally funded research projects and is partner in several other European projects. The projects are multi-disciplinary and involve researchers from academia, industry, NGOs and Law Enforcement. The projects typically have consortia with up to 20 partners. The Projects Assistant will be located at the STeP Project Office and will support in the timely and successful execution of projects and project proposals. He/she will also work closely with the project’s coordination team and may, if appropriate to circumstances, report to the coordinating person for a particular project or his/her delegate.

The Projects Assistant needs to be a highly motivated person capable of multi-tasking and working with tight deadlines. The Projects Assistant has excellent communication and organisational skills and preferably experience in EU funded projects. The post holder will support the management of research projects and proposals developed and coordinated by academic members of the STeP Research Group. Many of these projects are largely co-funded by various programmes of the European Union and therefore require:

I. Support of management activities:
• support of the management and co-ordination of the activities of the research partners to ensure timely and effective delivery of the project objectives, deliverables and milestones, including the preparation of financial and other reports for the projects
• collecting and helping analysing information and data on project progress
• assistance in bid formulation (especially bids within Horizon 2020)
• liaising with the Faculty's Finance Office
• support of the knowledge transfer (communication, dissemination and development) skills in areas as diverse as Security, Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities, IT, Science in Society, Health, Justice and Home Affairs
• any other relevant duties as may be required by the Project Office.

II. Processing of communications/administration:
• assisting the Projects Manager/Projects Officer in all Project Office activities
• assisting in the preparation and editing of documents for official communications, meetings and conferences
• arranging documents pertaining to meetings (hotels, travels, etc.) and following up on missions with processing and filing of travel documents for reporting
• providing general support to team members when travelling
• carrying out translations in English and Dutch, taking and transcribing dictation, drafting correspondence
• assisting in general secretarial tasks, like the administration of declarations and time sheets
• any other duties as may be assigned.

III. Organisation of meetings:
• assisting in meeting preparation including preparation and distribution of documents, correspondence with participants, registration of participants, minute-taking, etc.
• preparing background material pertaining to meetings when needed
• liaising with suppliers for services.

The following requirements apply to the post:
• must be educated to a Higher Professional Education level (in Dutch hbo), preferably in a domain linked to current projects (e.g. Law, IT, Business Administration)
• previous experience of 1 year of managing/administration of activity in the context of international projects and/or of an European Union funded projects (especially H2020) is highly recommendable
• must be familiar with working in an academic environment
• preferably have experience of project management using and formally qualified to PRINCE2 methodology standards
• must be able to assist in defining project plans, schedule tasks and resource requirements against timelines
• must be able to organise regular and large scale project meetings and conferences in and outside of The Netherlands
• must have effective English communication skills, both written and verbal; knowledge of the Dutch language level C1 is required (see also https://rm.coe.int/168045bb52).
• must be self-motivated, having a flexible working attitude and able to work collaboratively or individually to deadlines
• a proven sense of organisation, initiative and responsibility
• ability to work at the regional level, as well as in an international environment and willingness to travel.

Fixed-term contract: 12 months.

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:
- a salary depending on your qualifications and work experience a salary with a minimum of € 2,579 and a maximum of € 3,445 (scale 8) gross per month for a full-time position. This is in accordance with the University Job Ranking profiles Administrative Secretary 1 in combination with Project Leader 3
- a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income and 8.3% year-end bonus
- a part-time position (0.6 FTE) for a term period of 12 months, with the possibility of extension with another 12 months.

Starting date: 1 March 2020

Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen is a modern, (inter)nationally oriented institution, which builds on a longstanding tradition of almost four centuries. The faculty has the ambition to measure itself with the best law faculties in Europe and continuously renews its curriculum in order to educate lawyers with a broad orientation, accustomed to look beyond the borders of their own (sub) discipline. The faculty’s research is often cross- and multidisciplinary. The faculty offers several (inter)national Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes and hosts more than 4.000 students and almost 350 members of staff.

The Faculty has an English Bachelor programme in International and European Law and 5 English taught Masters. Its research is published in high quality national and international journals. In order to strengthen its international and European profile, the Faculty is looking for a Projects Assistant who will support the STeP Project Office in managing research projects that are co-funded by various programmes of the European Union.

STeP, the 'Security, Technology and e-Privacy Research Group', is an interdisciplinary team of researchers - from early stage researchers to advanced researchers - organised within the Department of Transboundary Legal Studies (TLS).

The team covers many areas of information policy & technology law including privacy, data protection, security sciences, surveillance, cybercrime, cybersecurity, self-regulation and health informatics. The STeP Research Group currently co-ordinates the Cybersecurity Noord-Nederland project funded by Provincie Groningen and the Marie Skłodowska Curie Action ESSENTIAL (Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law) and participates in several other European funded projects.