Abstract

RMA as a profession has undergone dynamic development in recent years, reflecting the need for research institutions to build more sustainable and complex project support services to become competitive on an international level. At the same time, most institutions don’t provide any systematic, in-house professional training to future RMAs, which causes a lack of highly skilled project managers in the academic sector.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce an innovative training scheme launched at Palacky University Olomouc (CZ) that strives to promote the RMA profession among young people and attract new talents.

The Grant Office at PUO designed a Traineeship programme, a pilot initiative to create a more robust network of young RMA professionals at the institution. There are two types of Traineeship: a) administrative traineeship, open to BA and MA students and b) professional traineeship for PhD students. The overall goal of both types is to transfer the knowledge of project management foundations including hard skills (administrative processes, financial management, …) and transferable/soft skills (teamwork, presentation skills, organization skills…) to aspiring students and early-stage academics.

The structure of both traineeships is as follows: Introductory part (first week) provides the trainee with theoretical knowledge of the ongoing funding schemes on the internal, national and international levels and with an overview of research-related, cross-cutting topics (gender dimension, research ethics, science communication, open science and other). The practical part (from the second week on) consists of a combination of on-site/online training sessions and completion of tasks in line with the individual traineeship plan. The plan is developed at the end of the first week by the Traineeship coordinator and reflects the trainee’s interest in specific programmes and topics.

Training is provided by the Grant Office staff in cooperation with the PUO’s Career Center and other relevant units and complemented by selected external workshops, seminars and online learning. The trainee is fully integrated into the Grant Office team by shadowing the project managers, attending team meetings and performing day-to-day tasks (web administration, drafting of a newsletter, researching new funding opportunities, etc.).

The administrative traineeship helps the trainees to gain valuable work experience that will boost their CV, become familiar with various opportunities to enrich their studies and potentially enhance their academic career (students’ research grants, awards and competitions), and get hands-on experience with the day-to-day running of the institution.
The professional traineeship provides the early-stage researchers with extensive knowledge of the grant programmes landscape as well as advanced skills in proposal writing (e.g., preparation for the successful start of their academic careers) and connects them to fellow researchers to build up their professional network and international profile.