Food and Beverage Accelerator Program: Based in Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)

Key Administrative role to support the new FaBA Trailblazer Program at QAAFI

Support world class research innovation with high quality administrative services

Be part of an organisation with a meaningful purpose and impact

Based at UQ's vibrant St Lucia Campus

About the Food and Beverage Accelerator

Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) is a $160 million initiative to boost growth and innovation in the food and beverage manufacturing sector. Part of the Federal Government's Trailblazer Program, FaBA leverages $50m of government investment with more than $110m from universities and industry. Partners work across four areas: the research programs ‘Innovative Ingredients' and ‘Premium Food and Beverage Products', and the enabling programs ‘Innovation Pathways' and the ‘FaBA Training Centre'.

A national initiative, FaBA provides F&B manufacturers access to research teams, next generation industry professionals, state-of-the-art equipment and pilot facilities. FaBA is proudly hosted by The University of Queensland, in collaboration with participants QUT, UniSQ and UniQuest.

Join a community where excellence is at the core of our culture, contributions are valued and a range of benefits and rewards are available, such as:

26 weeks paid parental leave or 14 weeks paid primary caregiver leave

17% superannuation contributions

17.5% annual leave loading

Access to flexible working arrangements

Health and wellness discounts – fitness passport access, free yearly flu vaccinations, discounted health insurance, and access to our Employee Assistance Program for staff and their immediate family

On campus childcare options

Cheap parking (from just $5 a day)

Salary packaging options

The Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) Innovation Pathways

FaBA's Innovation Pathways has been designed with industry input to address a gap in the provision of dedicated mentoring and services to researchers and businesses to more rapidly progress their technologies and products along the latter part of their commercialisation pathways (TRL4-9). Innovation Pathways will provide researchers and industry participants with tools and partnerships to develop R&D that is customer-focused and market-driven, progressing beyond TRL4 and supporting start-ups to become viable scale-ups and SMEs. Successful scale-ups will be targeted for funding through UQ's Investment Fund.

Innovation Pathways comprises the following three components:

The Insights Engine is a comprehensive new service to drive strategic thinking in the development of research priorities and will transform the way research opportunities are identified (industry pull as opposed to research push) and translated.

The Impact Foundry will enable researchers and industry participants to co-create and deliver market-driven research beyond early-stage discovery. The process will integrate tools, models, frameworks and programs designed by industry/commercialisation experts and take interdisciplinary teams of university researchers, scientists and technicians from partner companies through rapid skills development in key areas that build the first stage of a developmental pathway to market. Formulations can be tested and prototypes developed at bench-scale using the FaBA MakerSpace.

The Design Accelerator will provide additional support and intelligence for TRL/IRL5-9. Start-ups will be mentored and coached to determine appropriate business models and commercial arrangements for transition to investment through institutions such as UniQuest and other investors.

About This Opportunity

We are seeking an organised Administration Officer to support the effective and efficient operation of the Impact Foundry component of FaBA's Innovation pathways. The Innovation Pathways stream of FaBA has professorial leads for each of its three components. You will be reporting to Professor Damian Hine from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) who leads the Impact Foundry and is co-lead for Innovation Pathways.

You will be responsible for delivering a wide range of administrative processes in support of team/office outcomes and will be based at St Lucia in the QAAFI offices in the Queensland Biosciences Precinct.

Key responsibilities will include:

Providing administrative support and office coordination for the Impact Foundry team, and close coordination of tasks with the wider Innovation Pathways team.

Communicating regularly with the entire FaBA team, particularly the FaBA Directorate.

Functioning as the initial point of contact for enquiries, especially those involving our industry partners, including responding to routine and non-routine queries involving interpretation of policy and procedures.

Maintaining the calendar for the Impact Foundry Lead and coordinating calendars of the other Impact Foundry team members, including reminders and the organisation of meetings, speaking arrangements and other commitments

Competently utilising a range of desktop-based programs and management information systems

Liaising with internal and external stakeholders to maintain relationships which support the operational outcomes for the Impact Foundry team.

Processing and/or drafting office correspondence for internal and external stakeholder review

Developing and maintaining standard operating procedures for the effective and efficient functioning of the Impact Foundry

Organising some financial spreadsheets, for example managing reimbursements and other expenses according to University financial policy and procedures

Providing administrative support to meetings, including scheduling, distributing relevant documentation, taking minutes and coordinating rsvps and attendances

Assisting with travel coordination - lodging travel requests, reconciling travel statements, booking flights and accommodation.

Providing administrative support to specific projects and initiatives

Undertaking some data entry, retrieval, and document management processes

Arranging purchase orders for general office function and hospitality

Organising and supporting the functioning of routine events and other activities as relevant to the office

Organising and supporting the administrative aspects of workshops, seminars, conferences, and relevant events, including marketing and managing rsvps

This role is subject to The University's Code of Conduct.

This is a part-time ( 50%FTE ), fixed-term position through to January 2027 at HEW 5.

The full-time equivalent base salary will be in the range $74,378.89 - $82,842.92, plus a generous super allowance of up to 17%. The total FTE package will be in the range $87,023.30 - $96,926.22 annually.

About You

You will demonstrate effective administration, coordination and interpersonal communication skills, effective organisational and time management skills and you will be committed to providing a high level of customer service.

A degree or diploma with subsequent relevant experience or secretarial administrative experience or an equivalent combination of relevant experience and/or education training.

Demonstrated skills in providing a high level of customer service, including effective interpersonal skills.

Demonstrated high level of proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)

Effective organisational, time management and problem solving skills

Experience working as a team member in a busy environment.

Supervisory skills

Working knowledge of University administrative systems, policies and procedures or the capacity to rapidly acquire this knowledge

In addition, the following mandatory requirements apply:

Work Rights: You must have unrestricted work rights in Australia for the duration of this appointment to apply. Visa sponsorship is not available for this appointment.

Questions?

For more information about this opportunity, please contact Prof Damian Hine – [email protected]

For application queries, please contact [email protected] stating the job reference number (below) in the subject line.

Want to Apply?

All applicants must upload the following documents in order for your application to be considered:

Cover letter

Resume

Responses to the ‘About You' section

Please note that you will be asked to add all documents into the one upload box labelled ‘resume', which is step one of the application form.

Other Information

At UQ we know that our greatest strengths come from our diverse mix of colleagues, this is reflected in our ongoing commitment to creating an environment focused on equity, diversity and inclusion. We ensure that we are always attracting, retaining and promoting colleagues who are representative of the diversity in our broader community, whether that be gender identity, LGBTQIA+, cultural and/or linguistic, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, or people with a disability. Accessibility requirements and/or adjustments can be directed to [email protected]

If you are a current employee (including casual staff and HDR scholars) or hold an unpaid/affiliate appointment, please login to your staff Workday account and visit the internal careers board to apply for this opportunity. Please do NOT apply via the external job board.

Applications close Sunday 17 December 2023 at 11.00pm AEST (Job Reference Number - R-19240).

Please note applications will be reviewed as received. Candidates may be interviewed prior to the job closing date however interviews may also be scheduled for January 2024.