HEIs enabling the global research enterprise: from policy to practice

Many of the solutions to the global challenges we may face in the near future are expected to be solved through research. Therefore, as Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) continue to be major producers and drivers of research, what they research and how they manage that research is particularly relevant to how these global challenges will be addressed.

Research Management (RM) as a discipline can be defined as ‘any action that a university can take to improve the effectiveness of its researchers but which is not part of the research process itself’. Strong RM can act as a catalyst for the more efficient use of resources in the short term. In the longer term, RM can facilitate the expansion of a research institution’s resource pool, by increasing access to and improving the management of external funding - thereby enhancing donor confidence in the ability of a research institution to deliver. By improving the dissemination of research results, RM can also increase the impact of institutions’ research on wider society.

Since 2000 and the emergence of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a number of factors have combined to increase the attention given to improving the management of research, especially within HEIs:

• Confidence of many international agencies that higher education has an enhanced role to play in development strategies – including demands for more robust uptake (and evidence of uptake) of research from their funded programmes;
• Shrinking national budgets for HEIs – and recognition of the need for HEIs to diversify their resource base in order to meet this challenge, rather than relying on core funding from their respective governments;
• The trend for research funding globally to become more project based and competitive, and for HEIs to respond by helping their academics to compete in this environment;
• The increasing plethora and scale of research-related data being produced;
• Increasing range of media and milieu for research-related information.

Current pressures necessitate a departure from traditional thinking on the amounts and kinds of research being conducted, and where and how the outputs from research are disseminated. This means modernising (and often stylising) systems for the management of research.

In addition, HEIs (and other organisations that conduct and manage research) have for the most part been relatively aware of what they do well. However, they are increasingly having to address questions concerning what they should be doing, and what stakeholders want to know.

With the next congress of the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) just a few days away, we feel it is important to consider the roles RM will play in addressing whatever new goals and demands emerge post-2015 (when the MDGs expire) – and how RM staff and systems must prepare to meet those demands.

INORMS congresses, held biennially, are the major international events for research management – typically bringing together hundreds of research managers, research administrators, policy developers, academics, funders, and others interested in the management of research, to discuss and formulate best practice in this area. This INORMS congress, with the theme ’Enabling the Global Research Enterprise from Policy to Practice’, comprises strands on Policy, Practice and Performance. The Policy strand will look at global, national, or institutional policy initiatives impacting the administration of research; the Practice strand will look at the exchange of pre-award, post-award, or compliance operational best practices; and the Performance strand will look at tracking, enabling, or measuring performance or impact utilising tools or systems.

This comprehensive programme draws attention to current and horizon issues in RM. It also highlights the central role that HEIs globally play in research management agendas – as INORMS societies are mainly composed of, and run by, HEI-based professionals.

Without a doubt, HEIs are key players in enabling the global research enterprise. Join the ACU’s campaign to highlight the ways in which your HEI can and will address global challenges, in research and research management, beyond 2015.

Visit www.acu.ac.uk/beyond-2015 for more information about the campaign.