Abstract

The role of research management and administration has rapidly evolved over the past several decades due to a variety of factors, for example to a vibrant eco-system of the profession or to a multicultural community, even within international professional associations such as NCURA and EARMA. The presenters will explore the “gems of wisdom” they have collected in their career as members (and even chairs and board members) of two of these international associations, NCURA and EARMA.
The main topics covered in the sessions will be:
• The vision of the future of the profession in RMA, including the way forward of the higher education system globally: this will mean exploring how we have come up with building successful ecosystems incrementally, broadening the value of their core roles and shared functionality, looking to needs of other colleagues in RMA profession. This will also be done even looking at the cross-cultural understanding of the profession through transnational cooperation and what this means regionally by way of the European Strategy and building effective bridges for European higher education cooperation.
• Professional development and opportunities within professional associations.
• The build-up of professionalism: this will include a discussion on the state of research into RMA and what has been done so far (e.g., publications, journals).
• The community of RMA and its exponential growth result from an incremental level of professionalism fostered by professional associations.