SMARTLife

SMARTLife is project developed through a collaboration between the universities of the Western Cape and Cape Town and the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology representing Africa and the University of West of England and the GW4 Alliance – the Universities of Exeter, Bristol, Cardiff and Bath representing the United Kingdom. SMARTLife was supported by the ReMPro International Research Management Staff Development Programme (IRMSDP), an initiative of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in collaboration with ARMA to help streamline and improve research management and administration.

Project Team:

Project Strategy:

The project was split into three major objectives:

1) Needs Assessment
An online survey was conducted among research managers and administrators (RMAs) across team members’ networks, designed to identify the skills and resource gaps and the operational and infrastructural challenges that RMAs face in both Africa and the UK.

2) Knowledge Exchange Workshop: Setting up and running an equitable international collaboration:
This workshop aimed to provide an introduction for new research managers and administrators on how to set up equitable partnerships for
international research projects.
Learning Outcomes

• List key steps required to set up an equitable international
  collaboration
• Discuss challenges and enablers for setting up equitable
  international collaborations
• Describe resources one could use to set up equitable
  international collaborations

3) Competence based training resources:
This objective aimed to created resources for training RMAs based on some key competency thematic areas.

Research and Innovation Management Associations

For those who would like to find out more about the professional associations in your region and what support they can provide you, please see the contact table below: