Organised by HÉTFA Research Institute, the first Outreach Event of the EU-funded RM Framework project brought together professionals from the research management (RM), trainers, representatives of professional associations, as well policy experts discuss the profession’s development and the creation of a shared European framework for RM training. For HÉTFA, research management is a strategic priority, central to its mission to strengthen international research collaboration and to build professional capacities in the field.
In October 2025, the RM Framework project reached a key milestone with a two-day series of meetings in Budapest. Following the consortium’s General Assembly and Pilot Testers Meeting, the 1st Outreach Event on 22 October at Europe Point welcomed research managers, trainers, policy experts, and institutional representatives from across Europe and beyond.
The event introduced the project’s vision and first results, creating an open space for dialogue on the future of RM training and professional recognition. Participants from 15 countries — Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States — reflected the growing international interest in the field.
In his opening remarks, Gábor Balás, Managing Director of HÉTFA Research Institute, highlighted how research management has evolved from an emerging to an increasingly recognised profession:
“A decade ago, research management was hardly known as a profession in Europe. Since then, we have witnessed a strong bottom-up movement that has reached the European policy level. This has led to dedicated actions and funding to strengthen the visibility and professionalisation of RM.”
He recalled that HÉTFA has been at the forefront of these developments through several key initiatives:
“We launched the foRMAtion project to train university students as potential research managers — a flagship initiative that quickly gained European recognition. We also connected research managers from the Visegrad and Western Balkan regions and supported their capacity-building through regional cooperation. In the MAPIT project, we work together with Turkish, Finnish, and Dutch partners to strengthen participation in the EU’s research and innovation programmes.”
The day featured expert inputs from SRA International (SRAI) and ARMS, policy updates, and the RM Training Talk Roundtable with leading voices from across Europe. Participants agreed that the future European RM framework should be flexible, transparent, and interoperable, supporting mobility, peer learning, and professional recognition.
All presentations from the event are available here, and the full recording can be viewed on EARMA’s YouTube channel.
For more information about the project, visit www.rm-framework.eu.
