The University of Lagos is one of Nigeria's premiere Universities, established in 1962 with core values emphasizing commitment to quality academic learning and character, integrity, continuous improvement of staff professionalism and competence, as well as a strong commitment to cutting-edge research. In 2012, the University established the…

Research Infrastructures (RI) and Core Facilities (CF) are strong drivers for generating research results and, thus, knowledge at European Universities. In this paper, we provide insight into different features of RI and CF, their organisational structure and governance, funding mechanisms, critical factors for success, and challenges and…

As academic research evolves into distinct identities of specialised knowledge, institutional and paradigmatic barriers are formed between research teams, which demand enhanced research collaboration and cross-fertilisation of ideas. Drawing on the concept of cross-fertilisation, this paper adds original contributions to literature on research…

The developments of joint study programmes and their quality practice in the European Higher Education Area are studied. Such programmes are subject to the environment of institutional complexity. Guided by a multi-level approach and the institutional work framework of analysis, the research demonstrates how a particular quality practice is…

Research and Development (R&D) projects are inherently ambitious, complex, uncertain, and risky. On the one hand, they increasingly involve diversified groups of people and entities that gather around common goals, with different objectives for each one. On the other hand, science and technology policies promoted and implemented by public…

Researchers in the education sciences, like those in other disciplines, are increasingly encountering requirements and incentives to make the data supporting empirical research available to others. However, the process of preparing and sharing research data can be daunting. The present article aims to support researchers who are beginning to think…

Background: Embedded research involves co-locating researchers within non-academic organisations to better link research and practice. Embedded research initiatives are often complex and emergent with a range of underlying intents, structures and processes. This can create tensions within initiatives and contributes to ongoing uncertainty about…

Higher education institutions are moving towards highlighting the importance of research. According to the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa, the status of higher education institutions will be determined by the extent to which they are engaged in research and research-related activities. Higher education institutions…

As collaborative biomedical research has increased in size and scope, so, too, has the need to facilitate the disparate work being done by investigators across institutional, geographic and, often, disciplinary boundaries. Yet we know little about what facilitation is on a day-to-day basis or what types of facilitation work contribute to the…

Institutional research management (RM) is increasingly seen as a strategic force, not only to raise the research output per academic, but also the quality thereof. RM, therefore, has to attend to researcher development (RD). How RD is achieved, as part of RM, is still viewed as an embryonic field with attendant calls for additional research.…

This paper illustrates how a university-based project management office (PMO) can provide focused support across the entire grant project lifecycle within a European research context. In recent years, EU (European Union) research and innovation grant programs have increasingly shifted to support multidisciplinary consortia composed of industry,…

Research administrator interest in large research proposal development and submission support is high, arguably in response to the bleak funding landscape for research and federal agency trends toward making more frequent larger awards. In response, a team from Penn State University and Huron Consulting Group initiated a baseline study to…

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse leadership challenges in the organisation of strategic research centres, focusing on the relationship between organisation and the level of institutionalisation. Four main themes of leadership challenges were identified: (1) the "changing university context," including relationships…

This paper reflects on the emergence of an impact agenda and its incorporation as a feature of the academic contract in UK universities. It focuses on the depositions of senior academic managers across a range of social science research centres, as they critically reflect upon their organizational strategy for capturing and communicating the…

Universities have long been involved in knowledge transfer activities. Yet the last 30 years have seen major changes in the governance of university-industry interactions. Knowledge transfer has become a strategic issue: as a source of funding for university research and (rightly or wrongly) as a policy tool for economic development. Universities…