Collaborative Research: Planning: Shaping the Future of Research Project Management: A Survey on Practice and Needs

Research Project Management (RPM) is the structured planning, coordination, and oversight of research activities to help faculty researchers and institutions achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively. Although project management is widely used in other sectors, RPM remains underrecognized and inconsistently applied across U.S. research institutions. This project, Shaping the Future of Research Project Management: A Survey on Practice and Needs, brings together a national team of experts from multiple institutions to explore RPM further. The goal is to better understand how RPM is currently used, how it is perceived within the research community, and what future interventions would be most impactful to institutions of all shapes and sizes. In the future, survey data will be used to identify unique challenges and opportunities, ultimately supporting the development of targeted RPM tools and training development. This work supports the National Science Foundation’s mission by promoting the progress of science, strengthening the research workforce, and enhancing the national research infrastructure. The findings will be used to shape new programs and policies that boost research productivity, and then share them widely with the public, educators, and research professionals. While project management is widely used in other sectors, it is underutilized in research and inconsistently applied across institutions. This project will generate actionable data that can inform a scalable national model for RPM integration. This planning project will design, pilot, and distribute comprehensive surveys to assess the incidence, perceptions, and applications of RPM across U.S. research institutions. Using rigorous survey design and statistical analysis, the project will identify key trends, challenges, and best practices with comparative insights between various institutions to assess how RPM is understood and used across diverse research settings. The primary objective is to develop a comprehensive understanding of RPM practices and needs. Expected outcomes include: (1) enhanced understanding of RPM structures and challenges across institutions; (2) data-driven recommendations for developing targeted RPM related interventions, training programs, and resources; and (3) academic contributions to the growing literature on RPM. These outcomes will support the formalization of RPM as a recognized field and provide a foundation for future research and capacity-building efforts. Findings will be shared through publications, presentations, and webinars to ensure accessibility and impact across the research community and the public. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.