This required half-day workshop serves as the foundation of the Global Research Management Certificate (GRMC). It introduces participants to the fast-evolving global research landscape and examines the expanding role of research management within it.

As international collaborations grow in scale and complexity, research managers must navigate diverse governance systems, funding environments, cultural contexts, and stakeholder expectations. This interactive session explores global research trends, emerging challenges, and strategic opportunities, while highlighting how research management and administration professionals create value across borders.

Participants will reflect on the needs of institutional leaders, funders, and partners, and consider how to foster equitable, sustainable, and impact-driven international collaborations. The workshop sets the conceptual and strategic framework for the required and elective GRMC sessions that follow.

Learning objectives: 

1. Analyze key global trends and drivers shaping international research collaboration and their implications for research management practice.
2. Articulate the evolving value proposition of research management in enabling equitable, sustainable, and high-impact global partnerships.

Global Research Management Certificate: Required Workshop

Speaker(s): Olaf Svenningsen, Independent Research Advisor, Research Lighthouse

This full-day workshop provides a practical, end-to-end introduction to research administration using the grant lifecycle as its organizing framework. Designed for new and early-career research administrators, the session demystifies how funding moves from proposal development through award management and final closeout, and highlights the critical role administrators play in ensuring compliance, financial stewardship, and successful research outcomes.

Participants will explore the core responsibilities and decision points at each phase of the lifecycle—pre-award, award setup, post-award management, and closeout—through real-world examples, case studies, and interactive exercises. Emphasis is placed on understanding sponsor requirements, managing risk, supporting principal investigators, and recognizing how actions taken at one stage directly affect downstream processes.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a holistic understanding of research administration, increased confidence in navigating sponsor rules and institutional processes, and practical tools they can apply immediately in their roles. The workshop also fosters peer learning and collaboration, reflecting the cross-functional nature of effective research administration.

Learning objectives: 

1. Describe and apply the core responsibilities of research administrators at each stage of the grant lifecycle, from proposal preparation and award acceptance through post-award management and closeout, with an understanding of how decisions impact compliance and financial outcomes.
2. Identify common risks, compliance challenges, and best practices in research administration, and demonstrate effective strategies for supporting principal investigators while maintaining sponsor and institutional requirements.

Speaker(s): Ali Hussaini, Senior Grants Manager, Aga Khan University, Asaad Nafees, Assistant Professor, Aga Khan University

This track explores how research managers can sustain effective international collaboration in an increasingly complex global environment. It begins with the positive case for equitable international collaboration and engagement, then moves into the financial and organizational realities of working across borders. The second half addresses resilience, risk and, ultimately, research security and dual-use regulation.

This track focuses on how institutions anticipate change, establish strategic priorities, respond to national and industry needs, and ultimately demonstrate the value created through research. It starts with foresight and institutional strategy, moves into the UAE’s innovation-driven environment, and then considers how industry demand can shape research. It concludes by asking what happens beyond the research itself: how outputs are translated into outcomes, value and impact.

This is the most explicitly future-facing technology and transformation track. It begins with the use of data to improve decision-making, moves into automation of research administration, then considers the rapidly expanding opportunities and governance challenges associated with AI. It concludes by stepping back from individual technologies to consider how research management organizations themselves may need to change.

This track follows the development of the RMA workforce from recruitment through capability building, leadership and professional growth. It begins by considering how organisations can find talent beyond traditional RMA pipelines, then moves into practical workforce development and leadership. The later sessions broaden the focus to structured professional pathways and international practice before ending with the personal side of career development: mentorship, networking and professional relationships.

This track begins with the broadest question: why research integrity matters and how institutions can build a culture in which responsible conduct becomes the norm. It then moves into due diligence and institutional assurance, followed by more specialised ethical and regulatory issues in human subjects research. The final session brings the discussion into practical sponsor and award-management requirements.