University of St Andrews

All Academic (Research) posts which are paid for by an external body will require Finance (FAS) funding confirmation prior to advertising.  The Recruitment team will obtain this on your behalf when you contact them with your vacancy details. 

Please note that receiving an Award Letter or an informal indication that the grant application has been successful is not enough to proceed to advert if the grant code has not been set up and the money has yet to be transferred to the University. 

However, in exceptional circumstances, the Head of School, in discussion with the Master, may agree to temporarily underwrite the post from central School funding and allow you to advertise prior to the grant code being available.  In the unlikely event that the money does not materialise from the funder, the post would be withdrawn (usually ahead of interviews and certainly before an appointment is made). 

What to do next is covered in our Advertising section.

While it is likely that the majority of Academic (Research) posts will be externally funded, those which are paid partially or wholly by a School cost centre will require Workforce Planning Group (WPG) approval prior to advertising. 

Workforce planning applications for new or replacement posts should be submitted via the online portal. You will be required to sign in via single-sign on which will take you to your dashboard and provide access to previous applications as well as allowing you to submit further staffing requests.  Please note that only Heads of School can submit applications unless they have nominated you as a delegate. How to use the dashboard, nominate delegates and complete applications can be found in our Workforce Planning Guidance

If the post is approved via the Workforce Planning Group (WPG), HR will contact you and the Head of School regarding next steps.

Occasionally, the Master may be prepared to approve requests for academic posts offline eg where there is a very urgent need to replace an employee. If the Master approves the post offline, please follow the steps in the Advertising section. 

Occasionally approval to recruit for an Academic (Research) post may have been given at the School’s Strategic Planning Meeting.  In this case, please send details of the post to the Recruitment team along with the formal written approval - either the planning outcome letter or an email from the Master. Posts which have been approved in principle only and are underpinned by central funding will require final approval via a workforce planning application (see internally funded research posts).

If you are unsure if the post has been approved via your planning meeting, please contact the Recruitment team to discuss.