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Research Project
Centre for Mechanical Enginnering, Materials and Processes
Funder
Authors
Publications
Critical success factors of University-Industry R&D collaborations
Publication . Fernandes, Gabriela; Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Ribeiro, Pedro; Ferreira, Luís Miguel D.F.; O'Sullivan, David; Barroso, Daniela; Pinto, Eduardo B.
University-industry R&D collaborations (UICs) play a vital role in stimulating open innovation that leads to new products,
processes, and services that creates value for customers and broader societal impact. UICs, however, commonly fail to meet these
stakeholders’ benefits. This study identifies thirty-four critical success factors (CSFs) for improving UIC success. The study
includes a systematic literature review and a longitudinal UIC case study between Bosch Car Multimedia in Portugal and University
of Minho, a multi-million Euro R&D collaboration from 2013 to 2021. The importance of the CSFs is discussed in the context of
the UIC lifecycle. A survey among researchers and industry practitioners involved in R&D collaborative projects was completed
to confirm the analysis of the empirical results. This paper provides UIC managers with CSFs, which, when addressed competently,
can provide a basis for successful UIC projects and sustainable university-industry collaborations
Prioritizing stakeholders in collaborative research and innovation projects toward sustainability
Publication . Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Fernandes, Gabriela
Stakeholder engagement in collaborative research and innovation projects poses significant challenges, particularly in complex, multistakeholder settings addressing sustainability concerns. This study proposes a novel method for stakeholder prioritization in such projects, combining the analytic network process (ANP) tool with the sustainability categories of the P5 standard for sustainability in project management. Its applicability and usefulness are demonstrated through a case study project, using the new stakeholder theory (NST) lens. The ANP-P5 method can assist project managers in effectively aligning stakeholder management with both sustainability and NST principles.
Useful Project Management Practices in Collaborative R&D&I Projects
Publication . Fernandes, Gabriela; Tassari, Guilherme; Rocha, Lucas; Ferreira, Luís Miguel D.F.; Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Ribeiro, Pedro; Barroso, Daniela; Pinto, Eduardo B.
Collaborative Research and Development and Innovation (R&D&I) projects make an essential contribution to the development of knowledge-based, innovative products, processes, and services. The main objective of this paper is to gain a comprehensive understanding of project management (PM) in collaborative R&D&I projects, examining the usefulness of PM practices. The results are based on 465 valid responses from an online questionnaire survey on the perceptions of collaborative R&D&I project practitioners. The Relative Importance Index was used to classify the usefulness of the 35 key PM practices surveyed. The top 10 rank of the most useful PM practices cover the entire PM lifecycle and include well-known practices, such as ‘kick-off meeting’, ‘progress meetings’, ‘Gantt chart’, ‘project closure report’, ‘project closure meeting’, ‘milestone list’, ‘requirement analysis’ and ‘project scope plan’. Although, there are also less emphasised PM practices such as ‘alignment workshops’ and ‘project idea paper’. The paper contributes to supporting practitioners to decide which PM practices should be prioritised and implemented.
Sustainability in project management practice: a literature review
Publication . Soares, Inês N.; Fernandes, Gabriela; Santos, José M.R.C.A.
The intersection between sustainability and
project management has received significant attention in
literature. Organizations have come to acknowledge the
importance of incorporating sustainable practices in their
business operations, particularly through their projects.
However, integrating sustainability concerns poses challenges,
that require the development of methods, tools, and techniques
to assess sustainability at the project level. To assist project
managers in this endeavor, a comprehensive literature review
was conducted. The review aims to answer two main questions:
(1) What motivates project managers and their teams to
incorporate sustainability in project management practice? (2)
Which key project management practices and
frameworks/models can be used to ensure sustainability in
projects? The findings of this review provide valuable insights
for project managers seeking to integrate sustainability
practices throughout the entire project management life cycle.
Prioritizing stakeholders to boost collaborative R&I projects benefits: an analytic network process approach
Publication . Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Fernandes, Gabriela
A methodology was developed to prioritize stakeholders of a collaborative research and innovation (R&I) project in the circular
bioeconomy area, towards enhancing its benefits from a multi-perspective point of view. The concept of R&I project benefits was
broken down into criteria, evaluating different attributes related to the project outputs and outcomes, to the project management
processes, and to the social, environmental and economic dimensions. The devised methodology was based on a combination of
the analytic network process multicriteria decision making method and the key benefit categories from the P5 standard for
sustainability in project management. The P5 standard has been shown to adequately frame the benefits to stakeholders of R&I
projects in the topic of circular bioeconomy. Key benefits identified by the experts relate to the categories “society and costumers”
and “consumption”. The following stakeholders should have priority in the development of the project stakeholder management
plan: research team members, leaders at the consortium organizations, project management team members and environmental
NGOs. Future research will include a longitudinal study of the perceived stakeholder and benefit categories priority over time.
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Funders
Funding agency
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Funding programme
6817 - DCRRNI ID
Funding Award Number
UIDB/00285/2020