THE ROLES OF A RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR AT A UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This article reveals research management as a complex, constantly changing
process faced with numerous challenges. It also addresses the importance of a research
administrator in the areas of research management and research administration,
underscoring the research administrator’s impact on the research culture in the
institution. There is an ongoing debate on how to administer research in the context
of institutional management of growing complexity, changing economic conditions
and increasing political influence on research. The article emphasizes that the main
roles of the research administrator are helping faculties carry out research and representation
of university’s interests. However, the conditions for the implementation
of research vary, new challenges and opportunities continually arise, and thus the
competences of the research administrator must change to reflect these transformations:
he/she must take on the roles of manager, lawyer, financier, or quasiresearcher.