Cross-KIC Project Officer

Job Title: Cross-KIC Project Officer
Team: Sustainable Built Environment Team (Cities Team)
Level: Foundation
Please refer to our Capability Framework
Salary: Competitive for Not-for-profit organisation
Location: Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Spain
Start Date: ASAP

Apply By: Recruitment will occur on rolling basis until the role is filled. Due to high level of expected interest, candidates are advised to apply early.

ABOUT US

EIT Climate-KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) is Europe’s foremost climate innovation initiative. We understand that keeping global temperature rise below 1.5˚C demands unprecedented change. It requires new social dynamics, ways of doing business, capital flows, policymaking, economic models, and new ways of living. That is why our mission is to leverage the power of systems innovation to transform whole places, industries, and value chains by 2030, working across sectors to develop and scale ambitious, mission-led programmes.

Established in 2010 and headquartered in Amsterdam, we orchestrate a community of more than 400 organisations including large corporations and SMEs, municipal and regional governments, universities, and research institutes, as well as non-governmental organisations and uncommon actors. Historically, we have been funded by our founder and core funder, the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), but we are currently transitioning to a multi-funder model.

EIT Climate-KIC colleagues are based in one of our local offices across Europe or work remotely from home based in one of the countries where we have a branch. We meet at our local offices to exchange and connect and use online collaboration tools work with each other and with our Community. On occasion, we meet in-person as teams, and once per year as an organisation.

As a mission-driven organisation dedicated to climate transformation, we consider the climate impact of our own actions, for example travel, catering, or IT equipment.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Sustainable Built Environment is a cluster of projects within the Cities Team addressing New European Bauhaus, bio-based materials construction and circularity, sustainable transport and green corridors, as well as Hydrogen (H2Cities). The New European Bauhaus and the H2Cities are programmes under the EIT Community and funding scheme, whereas bio-based materials construction and sustainable transport are private funded programmes. EIT Climate-KIC participates in all those projects and holds a lead position in the New European Bauhaus and the bio-based materials construction. To deliver excellence in these projects, EIT Climate-KIC will have a focused team with high capabilities to lead complex, multi-sectoral, multi-partner projects. The Sustainable Built Environment cluster will incorporate the experiences, knowledge, and approach of EIT Climate-KIC’s Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration, as well as Cross-KIC collaboration. While the different projects will be part of different funders’ dossiers, EIT Climate-KIC will build linkages to its Transformation, in Time strategy.

The H2Cities project will create Hydrogen Living Labs in two RIS cities. Each city will benefit from six types of hydrogen vehicles on the streets simultaneously: buses, waste trucks, shuttles, lightweight public services, private cars, and logistics trucks. Innovators will test new products, supply chains, new components and work with local community and citizens on adapting to a new hydrogen economy. H2Cities will build a replicable roadmap for local authorities to add hydrogen into their existing Net Zero Strategies.

The New European Bauhaus project aims at exploring, testing and scaling up new concepts for future ways of living, at the intersection of art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology. In its third year of implementation, the New European Bauhaus promotes business and entrepreneurship through the support of start-ups; fosters innovation via the selection of promising ideas that are developed through mentoring, as well as the use of prototyping and testing facilities; supports citizen engagement in the design of public realm and addressing local challenges.

We are looking for a dynamic team player who is a strategic problem solver, ideally experienced with or interest in working in a multi-partner environment with cities and co-creation activities. We wish to bring to our team a person who is efficient and operational and wants to join a vibrant, multicultural team militating towards decarbonising cities in a sustainable, inclusive and aesthetics manner. The successful candidate will work in close connection to the Sustainable Built Environment manager and colleagues in a family-like team with a city focus. We wish our new colleague to evolve our ways of working to model the change we want to see in the world.

Finally, what to expect in terms of ways of working. EIT Climate-KIC is in the course of a deliberate evolution to new organisational forms and structures that are designed to support a complex adaptive system – a ‘Team of Teams’. Our organisational design reflects the unusual multi-laterality and complexity of the work we are doing and the relationships we need to establish and sustain in order to do that work effectively. We draw inspiration from deliberately developmental, ‘teal’ organisations, holocracy and leadership in complexity approaches. It is our aspiration to be an organisation that makes the most of the capabilities and adaptive learning abilities of every one of its members through distributed leadership, empowerment and self-management, and intelligent risk-taking.

Key Responsibilities

General

• Assist the Sustainable Built Environment manager and team in the daily project management tasks (financial, administrative and operational) for ongoing and upcoming projects.
  

H2Cities

• Assist in the preparation, publication and completion of the H2Cities running Call for Pilots, in association with the Business Desk team.
• Lead and coordinate the H2Cities Pilots from production, to publication, eligibility check, selection process and communicating the outcome of the review process.
• Support in the management, monitoring, reporting and driving forward project processes, in coordination with the programme partner organisations and project leads across the selected Pilot Cities.
• Ensure effective grant management in close collaboration with grant team and PMO peers.
• Support the H2Cities team members to deliver and report on time, assuring the quality requirements.
• Create or coordinate processes and management tools for assessing, planning, and reporting of the H2Cities with your PMO peers.
• Store & manage project and programme data and ensure readiness of usage by the EIT and EIT Climate KIC teams.
• Support the Sustainable Built Environment Programme Manager in all internal reporting processes and protocols and assist in the management of internal consortium partners to ensure excellent and consistent internal communications.
• Coordinate with the programme manager(s) on the development and implementation of marketing and communications activities.
• Proactively engage in a continuous improvement of the planning and data quality.
  

New European Bauhaus

• Serve as a key focal point in the administrative and operational aspect of various Calls ran by EIT Community NEB, in association with the Business Desk team.
• Coordinate with the EIT Community consortium the development and implementation of activities.
• Ensure effective grant management in close collaboration with grant team and PMO peers.
• Act as project support and onboarding responsible to grant beneficiaries.
• Create or coordinate processes and management tools for assessing, planning, and reporting.
• Store & manage project and programme data and ensure readiness of usage by the EIT, EIT Community and EIT Climate-KIC teams.
• Support the NEB team in all internal reporting processes and protocols and assist in the management of internal partners to ensure excellent and consistent internal communications.
• Support the organizing of a wide range of events related to the NEB.
• Support the Communications Officer with research and outreach.
• Provide ad-hoc technical and operational support.
  

Key Working Relationships

• EIT Community H2Cities
• EIT Community New European Bauhaus
• Sustainable Built Environment team within Cities Team
• PM/PMO teams and the wider EIT Climate-KIC Cities Team
• EIT Climate-KIC Management Team

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in this role you will be a good team player, ready to roll up the sleeves in peak periods to finish urgent deadlines, solution oriented, working towards autonomy.

Education/Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Project Management, Arts and Culture, Social Sciences or other relevant fields
• Minimum of 1+ years working experience as project/program management officer (PMO) or practical experience as a project officer in a complex, multi-disciplinary environment, preferably city-focused
• Ideally, experience or interest towards Grant Management specifically around the European Funding Frameworks (grants, subsidies, loans and prizes to winners specifically under Horizon 2020)
• Experience with Microsoft Projects or a similar tool and preferably experience in using the Participant Portal of the European Commission or self-taught skills from online trainings
• Experience with implementation of change and improvement projects or ability to do so
  

Education/Qualifications

• Master’s degree in the communications, marketing or journalism preferred, but and may be substituted for two (2) years of required experience.
  

Experience

• Project Management Office exposure or support in complex projects with multiple partners.
• Demonstrated experience of supporting senior decision-making, contributing to problem-solving, and helping individuals and teams to attain delivery of planned tasks.
• Exposure over performance management tools and processes, particularly those linked to complex projects with multiple partners.
• Experience/self-taught understanding of EU funding processes and projects; experience in documentation and reporting is a plus.
• Planning, organisation, coordination, multitasking, efficiency and prioritisation under pressure with gradually decreasing supervision.
  

Skills

• Fluency in English, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ideally in at least one other European language.
• Experience or willingness to work with collaborative IT applications (we use Office365 and Microsoft Teams, as well as Miro, Zoom, Exaptive, Salesforce, Mentimeter etc.).
• Ability to build positive and fruitful relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, and assure inclusion in the different projects led by the Sustainable Built Environment team.
• Autonomously foreseeing and tackling risks in an efficient manner.
• Soft skills such as empathy and respect for personal boundaries are highly appreciated.
  

Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach

• Solution focused, proactive, with a positive ’can do’ attitude.
• Ability to listen and build trust, willing to formulate clear reasoning and open to constructive feedback.
• Dynamic and curious, with developed interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, inspire and motivate people.
• Adaptable, flexible, and resilient: able to work effectively in ambiguity and complexity and to respond dynamically to change.
• Oriented toward networking with people and teams and sharing experience.
  

Location

Candidates must have the right to work in the country they're applying for. Ideally, the successful candidate will be based close to a EIT Climate-KIC office, but we support full remote or hybrid forms of working and offer a high degree of flexibility.

At EIT Climate-KIC we are wholeheartedly committed to building a diverse and representative team and an inclusive workplace that values different life experiences and perspectives, and encourages personal development, learning and growth.

When recruiting we look to achieve diversity in the candidate pool. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to that will foster success in potential employees from diverse backgrounds and life situations. And because our team has differing needs and personal circumstances, we offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate all working patterns.