Research Infrastructure Management: Governance, Strategy Development, and Operations

This open access book combines findings and solutions from various areas of research management, such as HR, finance, strategy, and business case development. In recent years, Europe has invested enormously into the establishment of Research Infrastructures (RIs): new types of research service-providing organizations in virtually all scientific domains, which are often based on local or regional core facilities and research centers. Bringing together interdisciplinary and multinational teams at single-site or distributed research facilities, more than a thousand RIs are active worldwide and operate as structured, networked organizations led by Research Infrastructure Managers. These Managers are mostly scientists who have to strike a balance between their scientific background on the one hand and effective management and leadership skills on the other.

This is the first open access book made for Research Infrastructure Managers around the globe. It also provides insights into complex managerial issues involved in setting up and operating RIs, developing appropriate service provision, and market communication and dissemination activities. Readers will particularly benefit from the use cases, which were developed as part of the Executive Masterin Management of Research Infrastructures offered at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), which was supported by the Research Infrastructure Training Programme (RITrain), an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project.