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Responsible to: Managing Director
Working with: 
Primarily: PRACE staff, Access Committee and Board of Directors, PRACE Implementation Phase (PRACE-6IP and successive) and other European funded projects, suppliers and contractors.
Secondly: PRACE Council Delegates, other PRACE bodies, scientific community at large.
Location: Troonstraat 98, rue du Trône, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Post: Full-time (38h per week, 5-day week)

2. Summary

Reporting to the Managing Director, the Peer Review Officer will be responsible for the follow-up and execution of the activities relating to the PRACE Peer Review Process. He/she will support the PRACE vision, mission and strategic objectives. He/she will work with the organisation team members and the PRACE bodies’ members, chiefly the members of the PRACE Access Committee and the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee, to support the execution of the PRACE Peer Review Process and identify and explore opportunities to improve the processes.

3. Authority/Limitations to Authority

Working towards the PRACE mission bearing in mind the PRACE vision. The Peer-Review Officer functions with authority from the Managing Director. The Peer Review Officer shall operate within the guidelines of the PRACE Strategy within good practice as understood in the sector and developed by the organization. These limitations will be reviewed periodically.

4. Accountabilities

Accountability in this relationship is mutual. The Managing Director is accountable to the Peer-Review Officer to provide guidance and resources periodically and to relate to the post-holder in a manner consistent with PRACE values. The Peer Review Officer is accountableto the Managing Director for performance and reporting according to the expectations of the post and for operating within the authority delegated to him/her.

5. Main Duties and Responsibilities

Prepare and implement Call for Proposals (currently 2/year): coordinate and contribute to the opening of the Call for Proposals for the distribution of HPC resources to scientists.

• Draft the terms of reference of each Call, in collaboration with the Board of Directors (BoD) and the HPC centres (Hosting Members (HM) and/or Tier-1 Centres, depending on the type of call) participating in the Call;
• Prepare a plan setting out the timing of each element of the call and the milestones to be met;
• Update the supporting documentation (technical guidelines, applications forms, reports templates, email templatesetc.) in conjunction with the participating Centresor BoD members, as applicable. This includes incorporating feedback from applicants of previous calls to improve and simplify the documentation, where appropriate;
• Act as the main interface between applicants and the organisation in matters relating to peer review, in particular providing support and assistance to the applicants in completing the application forms, and deliver feedback from the scientific and technical reviews to them.

Administer the Peer Review Process: execute the administrative tasks implementing the Peer Review Process.

• Perform an administrative check on all proposals (including interaction with applicants for corrections/clarifications, as applicable);
• Liaise with PRACE Access Committee (AC) for the selection ofAC rapporteurs and scientific eviewers and ensure that the timetable is adhered to. Identify additional reviewers who can act as reserves;
• Liaise with the HPC Centres for the technical review and ensure that the timetable is adhered to;
• Assign reviewers to each proposal as selected by the AC and ensure the completion ofthe review process (if necessary, providing assistance). Manage conflicts of interest in the assignment of reviewers to proposals, in close collaboration with the AC;
• Perform a quality check of the reviews (for confirmation by the AC and panellists during the Prioritisation Panel);
• Communicate results to the applicants, centres and HM representatives and provide them with feedback about decisions on request;
• Interact with the lead scientists (Principal Investigators) of awarded projects e.g. to manage requests for extensions, collect the final reports etc.;
• Maintain and update a database of all scientific output (publications, thesis, presentations...) of completed PRACE awards, as listed in the final report.

Support to the prioritisation and allocation of proposals:

• List the rapporteursin collaborationwith the AC and BoD and invite them to contribute;
• Manage conflicts of interest in the assignment of rapporteurs;
• Coordinate logistical aspects of the corresponding meetings, with support from the office secretarial staff;
• Prepare the master files and other documentation for each of the AC Prioritization meetings;
• Perform the secretariat of the AC Prioritization meetings and Resource Allocation Sessions (currently twice/year).

Manage the PRACE Experts and distributed resources databases:

• Maintain and update a database of potential reviewers;
• Interact with the organisation which provides technical support for the tool supporting the review process(e.g. on updates, debugging, problems notified by the users...);
• Maintain a database of submitted proposals, their reviews, reviews outcomes, final reports;
• Provide country performance table and country data statistics per scientific area to each PRACE member, after each Call;
• Undertake additional data analysis on demand for the BoD, Scientific Steering Committee, Council Chair, or third parties.

Support to reporting and communication:

• Provide tailored information for press releases, annual report or other publications, in response to requests from the PRACE Communications Office;
• Provide tailored information to the BoD and/or to the Council Board for reporting to the bodies of the organisation as applicable;
• Present the PRACE Peer Review process in PRACE meetings, PRACE users meetings and other international events.

6. Other

• Carry out other communications tasks that may arise or are needed to properly execute the tasks above;
• Some travel may be required, in Europe and beyond.

7. Skills and education required

• Degree level education in a STEM subject, preferably witha modelling or HPC-related PhD;
• Experience in managing funding programmes is an asset;
• Fluency in English. French would also be as asset;
• Good communication skills, both oral and written;
• Proficiencyin text processing and spreadsheet software, mainly MS word and MS excel (pivot tables, filters and conditional formulas);
• Diplomacy, detail-orientedand proven organisational skills.

Candidates should send their cover letter and resume by e-mail to director@prace-ri.eu by Friday 3 January 2020 EOB.

this job offer is not open for applications