The current state and future perspectives of research management were in the focus of the interactive forums organised by the 5 partners of the V4WB RMA N+ project between June and September 2024. The V4WB RMA N+ consortium of 7 partners is led by HÉTFA Research Institute.

The main objective of these events was to showcase the activities of research support offices, explore the career paths of research managers and gather national and regional good practices on monitoring and strengthening the impact of RMA services. The forums have been organized in 6 countries so far: Slovakia, Poland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Serbia.

The forums held in the different countries highlighted both common points and national specificities regarding the situation of research managers. In several countries, the issue was raised  that research managers are working on fixed-term contracts for  specific projects, which places them in a precarious labour market situation. At universities, research managers are often not involved in decision-making at organisational level, they have few training opportunities and get little institutional support. On the other hand, there is a positive trend towards the establishment of more and more university research grant offices. It is quite apparent that where such offices were set up, there has generally been an increase in the institution’s involvement in projects and the submitted proposals have been more successful.

Participants in the forums expressed the need for a standard career pathway in research management to progress through transparently structured, sequenced trainings. In a similar way, the need emerged for a transparent system of research manager job roles at inter-institutional level.

Overall, what was said at the national research management forums shows that the profession is evolving, but the experiences of participants suggest that there is still plenty of room for further development.