Free toolkit for research management professionals available online

Research management professionals are critical to the success of research programmes, especially large-scale, international projects like AFRICAP.

Earlier this year, our programme manager Dr Helen Coskeran co-led Cradle to Grave, a research and programme management knowledge sharing series developed and facilitated by a team of research management professionals based in the UK and Africa.

Over the series of three workshops, the team welcomed 40 programme managers from around the world to share knowledge and best practice in key areas of research management, including pre-award design and funding, reporting frameworks for the implementation of research collaboration, and programme wrap-up and legacy.

Afterwards, the team used the contents to create an online toolkit to support research management professionals throughout the programme life cycle. The free toolkit includes templates for key areas of programme management such as a bid development checklist; the Partner Institutional Viability Assessments (PIVA) tool; a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework; activity and communications trackers; and close-out and programme legacy checklists.

Following the success of the initial workshops, there are also plans to use this cohort to form the basis of an international network of research managers.

Cradle to Grave was funded by the African Academy of Sciences and Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) UK through the International Research Management Staff Development Programme (IRMSDP).