The contemporary complex settings under which research and innovation
(R&I) activities are executed in academic institutions calls for the definition of suitable
management and administration approaches. To this end, (1) the existing literature on the
management of R&I projects in the academia is reviewed; (2) major specificities of R&I
projects are discussed; (3) recent trends in project management are addressed; and (4) a
specific framework for the management of R&I projects in higher education is proposed. The
proposed management framework is defined in eight pillars, namely: (i) clarification of scope
and goals; (ii) use of standards; (iii) scalability and flexibility; (iv) workflow modelling;
(v) use of tools, techniques and templates; (vi) existence of a “project board” or similar; (vii)
adequate risk management; and (viii) organizational learning. The authors argue that
it should be seen as a practical tool for university managers and administrators to apply a
structured and comprehensive overview of key action areas that will increase the effectiveness,
efficiency and impact of R&I project management and administration in academic contexts.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial
support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020
and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021). This article is a result of the
project “ValorNatural – Valorização de Recursos Naturais através da Extração de Ingredientes
de Elevado Valor Acrescentado para Aplicações na Indústria Alimentar” (NORTE-01-0247-
FEDER-024479), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE
2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
