ACU Measures: Research Management

The ACU has a strong record in benchmarking for research management (RM) – and has been running benchmarking exercises in this area since 2001. Our benchmarking exercises are primarily for universities, but also involve other research stakeholders such as Professional Associations, Funders and Science Granting Councils

The ACU’s online ‘Quantitative’ Benchmarking exercise (ACU Measures) – gives institutions the opportunity to benchmark their performance over time, and enables the self-service production of bespoke reports, tables and charts. It is designed to complement our existing Roundtable Qualitative Benchmarking (Process Benchmarking) exercises, which facilitates the sharing of experiences and the dissemination of good practice.

The ACU acknowledges that RM is currently at very different stages of development around the world, so this exercise allows institutions to benchmark their performance in a set of common areas, such as the percentage of research-active staff within an institution, and the proportion of research income from domestic and international sources.

This unique survey series provides useful information for staff as well as policymakers at ACU member institutions

Since 2014, over 200 institutions from 36 countries have participated in our ACU measures RM benchmarking exercises.

Benchmarking Data

Benchmarking data are available to ACU member universities (in anonymised aggregate form) from the ACU Measures site. The platform allows registered users to benchmark their research management provision and practice with peers of their choice over time, using downloadable tables, graphs and reports.

To find out who are the registered ACU measures users from your institution, contact us at:  [email protected]