ANALYSIS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES IN R&D WORKGROUP

• Main Authors: Aníbal N. Cassanelli, Alejandro Cantú, Jorge Moreno, Germán Rossetti, Leticia Arcusin, Melisa De Greef
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata 2018-06-01
• Series: Iberoamerican Journal of Project Management
• Subjects: R&D project management; R&D workgroup; researchers; R&D funding; university; PMO
• Online Access: http://www.ijopm.org/index.php/IJOPM/article/view/374/487

This article presents the results of the study of project management activities in R & D research teams at the Universidad Nacional del Mar del Plata, the Universidad Nacional del Cuyo and the Universidad Nacional del Litoral. The survey carried out on 120 researchers on the activities of the working day that they regularly develop includes Teaching, Research, Project Management of R&D, Extension and Others. The activity of R & D Project Management was developed permanently during all the months of the year 2017.It was established for the entire sample that the distribution of the weekly workload was on average 33% for Teaching, 39% for Research, and 13% for R&D Project Management. During this period, R&D Project Management competed with central research activities affecting the participation of the researcher both in the management of the work group and in Research. The funding that researchers access for their project portfolios comes mainly from national agencies and the research group's university headquarters. For all cases, the percentage observed for international financing is less than half of any of the other two sources of financing. The best qualified researchers have the responsibility of the R&D Project Management, including the identification of sources of financing, formulation, management and also the direction of the human resources for the achievement of the objectives of the project. This series of responsibilities compete for working time and are of little value to the objectives of the R&D projects. From the results obtained both for the researchers and for the funding sources, an opportunity is identified to increase the funds as the list of sources of the R&D projects. That also allows to reduce the work load on the best human resources of the research teams of the universities. In this sense, it is pertinent to analyze the feasibility of an external structure to the research groups that perform these functions. With specialization in the management of R&D projects, which increases access to international financing sources, identifying opportunities, formulating and managing projects.