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September 13, 2024

Originally from Sri Lanka, Aruna earned a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Alberta, specializing in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.  After a couple of post-doctoral positions gathering great deal of research experiences, and a few years working as independent research scientist and analyst, Aruna found his ground on research management and administration, more recently serving as the research admin coordinator for the Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) at the University of Saskatchewan. 

Aruna demonstrated a great deal of expertise as a research coordinator in academia and in the industry, including post-award grant administration and pre-award grant support, developing and managing large-scale research projects with thorough budget management, and writing and reviewing grants. Although external to UVic, Aruna joins our team bringing an extensive knowledge of the Canadian funding landscape, especially working with NSERC and SSHRC grants, as well as collaborating with community and industry partners, which is a great complement of expertise to our team in Social Sciences. He will start his position as Post-Award Officer for the Faculty of Social Sciences on September 16th, first remotely and then will be relocating from Saskatchewan later this fall. 

With this position, we are pleased to offer post-award support on a consultation basis to all faculty members in the Faculty of Social Sciences. The post-award officer provides assistance with payroll and hiring processes, purchasing and reimbursements, and other aspects of budget management. This resource is available to help faculty navigate these administrative tasks efficiently, especially in the case of complex grants in which extensive consultation with research finances, accounting, purchasing and payroll are more often the rule. We are hoping an entry point and support from a systems navigator will make a great deal of difference for our faculty members.