Research manager

A research manager is a title with two different meanings: in a company, the head of a research group, and in a university, a professional who supports research through funding, contracts, compliance, and reporting.

How it works in a university-industry collaboration

In industry, a research or R&D manager leads a team of scientists or engineers, sets its technical direction within the company's priorities, owns its budget, and answers for its results. They're often the person who sponsors a university collaboration and decides whether to renew it.

In universities, especially in the UK and Europe, research management is a profession of its own. ARMA, the UK association for research managers and administrators, has more than 3,000 members (ARMA). In the US, the same work usually goes by research administration, and it sits in the sponsored programs office, research development, and compliance offices. A lab manager in an academic lab is different again, and typically runs operations such as ordering, safety, equipment, and training rather than the research direction.

Translation Box: research manager

On the academic side: a research administration professional, or in a lab, an operations role. Neither sets the science, which stays with the PI.

On the industry side: a line manager of researchers, with budget authority and a seat in portfolio decisions.

What Helikon does with it

On the Helikon platform, a research manager can search the researchers inside their own organization and filter them by field, h-index, number of papers, and what their bio says, on every plan.