Press Release: Funding Required for EU to Capitalise on Game-Changing Potential of Research Management Professionals

Government bodies and EU funding agencies must support the continent’s research management community if they want to accelerate innovation and economic growth.

The finding was published in a report issued by the Horizon Europe-funded RM Roadmap project, which has been specifically designed to help grow Europe’s research capital base.

Following a three-month-long consultation process that involved every national representative body across the European Research Area, the report also highlighted the lack of a continental-wide framework governing the research management profession and limited motivation among research managers.

Nik Claesen, Managing Director of EARMA and the coordinator of the RM Roadmap project, believes that funding is required if Europe wants to capitalise on its innovation potential.

“There is a need for support from government bodies and funding agencies to establish and sustain research management networks and associations.”

“At the moment we have several national and pan-European bodies that represent the research management profession but very little formal engagement between them”.

“This has led to a situation where we don’t have any standardised definitions around what it means to be a research management professional and a limited understanding around the significance of their role”.

“Attempts to bring people and organisations together have been limited by the voluntary nature or poorly paid positions that have been created”.

“This leads to research managers not being able to develop or learn from peers across Europe”.

“Unfortunately, stagnation stymies progression and motivation, which are key enabling factors to unlocking the potential of Europe’s research management community”.

The report will be officially launched during a collaborative event hosted by the RM Roadmap project and Crowdhelix on Monday, February 26.

Claesen will outline some of the obstacles preventing the research management community from helping to accelerate innovation before describing potential solutions.

“As a community of research management professionals, we want to be able to present actionable solutions to policymakers. That’s why RM Roadmap has engaged in a bottom-up approach”.

“Through consensus, we want to be able to define what we do and suggest recommendations that will help us to actively contribute to the growth of Europe’s research capital base”.

“Those recommendations include more support from government agencies and funding bodies but we also need to define what research managers do so that we can create job descriptions that share commonalities or shared pathways for career progression”.

“We also need to look at how we might create a formal network across Europe to support coordination efforts, promote training programmes and house resources”.

“If implemented, I firmly believe that RM Roadmap’s recommendations can dismantle the siloed approach to research management that exists across Europe and generate a game-changing impact on European innovation”.

Echoing Nik Claesen, Crowdhelix CEO, Michael Browne, believes that liberating research management professionals can help unlock Europe’s innovation potential.

“Research management professionals are ideally positioned to work across disciplines, borders and institutions. Individually, their networks transcend academia, business, policy and society”.

“If we can provide research management professionals with a common set of tools, structures and practices they can unleash Europe’s innovational potential by helping to bring stakeholders and organisations together”.

“I truly believe that cross-border cooperation and knowledge exchange among highly ambitious and motivated research management professionals has the potential to be a game changer in this respect”.

“At Crowdhelix, we’re seeking to help mobilise the research management community through our Research Management Helix”.

“We want it to become a place where research management professionals can circulate ideas, training events and results from projects like RM Roadmap”.

RM Roadmap and Crowdhelix will collaboratively launch results from the project’s first co-creation session on Monday, February 26. You can register to attend the launch here.