Value of project management in university–industry R&D collaborations

Abstract

PurposeUniversity–industry projects provide special challenges in understanding and expressing the values required of project management (PM) in delivering stakeholder benefits. This paper presents a framework for understanding, identifying and managing the values of PM in major university–industry R&D projects.Design/methodology/approachThe value framework identifies for each of the key stakeholders, the key PM values that may require to be managed and are largely derived from research literature. Empirical research then explores, prioritises and selects key PM values that need to be managed for a specific project. A large case study is used involving one university and one industry collaborating on a multi-million Euro initiative over six years. Empirical research was conducted by researchers who observed at close quarters, the challenges and successes of managing the competing values of key stakeholders.FindingsThe value framework takes a stakeholders' perspective by identifying the respective PM values for each of six stakeholders: university–industry consortium, university, industry, R&D external entities, funding entity and society.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was performed using only one case study which limits the generalisability of its findings; however, the findings are presented as a decision support aid for project consortia in developing values for their own collaboration.Practical implicationsGuidance and decision support are provided to multi-stakeholder research consortia when selecting values that need to be managed for achieving tangible and intangible project benefits.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates a proposed framework for designing and managing the value of PM in large multi-stakeholder university–industry R&D projects.

Critical Management Risks in Collaborative University-Industry R&D Programs

“…The project teams should be encouraged to conduct a proactive identification of risks related to their work tasks, as well as raising interest in the risks related to their project. It would be important to study what factors cause project teams to find no significant advantage in implementing RM practices, and to show them the value of RM practices and other project management practices [6].…”

“…In spite of different organizational cultures between university and industry, the inherent benefits of these partnerships outweigh the barriers [5]. Most of the problems associated with the cultural gap between industries and universities can be mitigated through effective Project Management, as this discipline has already proven to bring tangible and intangible values to both organizations [6]. With the increasing occurrence of UIC projects, it has been possible to verify that there are some associated failure reports [7].…”

Role of the Project Management Office in University Research Centres

“…1. PMO functions' alignment with the URC's culture [62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] and strategic direction [46]. For example, in the context of a URC, the title of Project Manager is not commonly used since Professors/Researchers associated with URCs with a scientific background typically do not see themselves as managers.…”

“…PMOs are heterogeneous: they vary in size, function and other aspects [70]. Each organisation should consider what role its PMO plays and adapt it to emerging needs [71]. There is a need to ensure that the roles fit within the organisational and strategic context, increase project performance and meet varying expectations [72].…”

“…Therefore, further research can be performed by applying the findings of this study towards the understanding of the roles of PMOs and the weight that different URCs place on various functions and how they interact, highlighting the URC contextual variables. It would also be helpful to develop a model to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of PMOs in URCs since the PM value for the particular context of R&D projects [71] has been questioned by several scholars [111,112].…”