Improving Research Management for Improving Research Outcomes

1. Improving Research Management for Improving Research Outcomes Key Issues in Research Management Erik Arnold European Parliament 10 October 2012

2. Drivers for increased management of University research • More demand for research funding as university system grows • Increased competition among universities via rankings and performance-based research funding systems • Changing customer base for research, with the share of income won under competition tending to rise • Multiple research funders with different and idiosyncratic administrative requirements • University reform and professionalisation of management • Increasingly specific university strategies • Integration of the Technology Transfer Office function into wider research management

3. Five main roles for research management • Devising and implementing aspects of research strategy • Creating strategic intelligence about funding opportunities • Managing and monitoring the research project life cycle • Marketing and valorising research cooperation and results • Monitoring research performance to feed performance-based research funding systems • But the legitimacy and boundaries of the role are contested

4. Barriers to improved research management • The weakness of university research strategies and the difficulties universities experience when trying to deploy these strategies • Some degree of resistance to research management from the researchers themselves • Lack of clear organisational models • Variety in the institutional and funding environments, that impede the emergence of a standardised or ‘normal’ definition of research management • Lack of professional standards and accreditation

5. Issues for discussion • How to establish and maintain links between research strategy, strategy deployment and research management in universities • The appropriate division of labour between the management centre and researchers in university research management • How to generate benefits from research management for individual researchers, so as to make the cooperation between the two levels more effective • Organisational models for effective and embedded research management • Whether there is a need for professionalisation and accreditation of university research management • Other opportunities for policy to improve the quality and effectiveness of university research management

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