Abstract

CARDEA - Career Acknowledgement for Research (Managers) Delivering for the European Area

Research Managers are Invisible
Cardea is the Roman Goddess of the hinge. CARDEA is aptly named as Research Managers open Research Doors. Even though Research Managers have been strengthening Europe's Research and Innovation excellence for decades (through a diverse set of support roles and responsibilities) they are invisible from policy, career progression and tenure opportunities across Europe. There is little role consistency between funders, policymakers and individual institutions in the ERA. Salary scales, employment contracts, skills, competencies, and training opportunities for Research Managers are also inconsistent. Finally, Research Manager positions are often tied to individual grants leaving Research Managers often on precarious contracts throughout their careers. Despite this, Research Managers play a key role in administering research activities and valorising a range of hidden research outputs.

CARDEA is developing supports to address this invisibility because Research Managers are here! Research Managers are delivering! CARDEA is funded through Horizon Europe.

CARDEA is currently creating a detailed data-driven (500+ participants, 24 countries) knowledge space-defining and characterising the issue. Based on this, we are developing a range of solutions, including a Capacity Maturity Model to assess and improve RM activities, a novel RM Hub for networking and training to include a community of practice. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Widening Participation (EU13), Public-Private partnership actions will be at the core of our research, training and enhancement activities.

Additionally, the mobility and networking of Research Managers and those with responsibility for developing Research Managers are included to ensure the Research Manager ecosystem grows transnationally. We always learn from each other and support one another in bringing Research Managers careers to the next level. Significantly our actions are providing an evidence base by which to advocate for the inclusion of Research Managers exigences in policy, and we are targeting this proactively.

We will share at the EARMA conference the first analysis of the results from our extensive pan-European survey of Research Managers in the ERA. The survey analyses the career journey of Research Managers, their skills and work context as well as their career aspirations. Demographic information will also be available revealing if characteristics such as gender and age influence research manager role profiles. The results of the CARDEA survey will inform European Policy makers in the ERA Action 17.