· Support scientists and proposal teams in developing accurate, competitive and compliant project budgets, ensuring adherence to institutional policies, donor requirements and the administrative information specified in call guidelines.
· Support the identification and assessment of funding opportunities that align with IITA’s and CGIAR’s strategic priorities.
· Review donor call guidelines and provide technical guidance on proposal requirements, budget preparation and administrative compliance.
· Conduct administrative and technical compliance reviews of proposals to ensure conformity with donor guidelines and institutional requirements prior to submission.
· Develop, maintain, and regularly update institutional cost databases, including staff, administrative, operational and station costs, to support proposal budgeting
· Maintain and update the institutional master cost document to facilitate efficient budget preparation and review.
· Monitor and incorporate revised Resource Service Support (RSS) rates and other management approved cost directives into institutional budgeting tools.
· Coordinate the Director-level approval of Project Summary Forms before initiating requests for project cost centres.
· Monitor changes in donor proposal and budgeting policies, templates and compliance requirements, and update institutional guidance, templates and tools accordingly.
· Compile, maintain, and regularly update repositories of donor budget templates, proposal templates, costing formats and donor budgetary requirements.
· Review and update IITA budget templates in collaboration with People & Culture, Finance, Supply Chain and other relevant units to ensure the accuracy of staff and operational cost assumptions.
· Provide budget development guidance, proposal development support and training to scientists and relevant staff across IITA.
· Support scientists and proposal teams in initiating, registering and coordinating proposals through the Institute’s internal proposal development and approval processes.
· Support to follow-up with the Deputy Directors General (DDGs) and other stakeholders on pending proposal ideas and approvals within the PDAU Proposal Ideation Platform.
· Support the compilation, processing and submission of proposal supporting documents, including letters of support, letters of intent, due diligence documents, questionnaires, policy documents, audited financial statements and other required annexes.
· Support the Unit Head in preparing the unit’s annual budget, monitor PDAU expenditures, prepare monthly expenditure reports and liaise with Finance to resolve budget-related queries.
· Perform any other duties as may be appropriately assigned by the Head of Unit in response to service exigencies.