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ISA Research Project Management
Hiring a Research Project Manager
Hiring an ISA Resesarch Project Manager
ISA Research Project Managers: Expertise at Your Service
ISA has a dedicated team of Research Project Managers (RPMs) to support SFU researchers. Working with an ISA RPM offers several advantages over hiring on your own:
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Expertise and Knowledge
- Extensive project management experience
- Familiar with SFU Processes, systems, and funding agency programs
- Has access to other RPMs they can tap into for supplemental guidance and knowledge
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Convenience and Continuity
- Already employed at SFU - no hiring process required
- Available for the full duration of your project (no leaving early to find their next project!)
- Part of a larger RPM team, ensuring backup coverage when needed
- Support can be part-time based on project needs
Given the limited capacity of this team, the ISA Research Project Managers typically only support projects that meet most of the following criteria, as capacity allows:
- Complex
- High value
- High risk
- Multi-institutional
- Strategic
- Research-focused
- Awarded to the institution
- Supports EDI principles
- Administratively onerous (e.g. highly restrictive spending policies, complex/frequent reporting, etc.)
Connect with us
To find out if an ISA Research Project Manager might be able to support your project, please contact the ISA Associate Director of Research Management, Kimberly Sivak, at ksivak@sfu.ca.
Hiring Your Own Project Manager
Despite the many advantages of utilizing an ISA RPM, there are times when it may make more sense to hire your own project manager or project coordinator, such as when:
- You are seeking a project manager with a specific technical background
- You require a project manager to assist with technical lab administration
- You need a full-time, multi-year project manager
- You do not have the budget to hire an ISA RPM for the FTE needed
- You are seeking a more junior level staff member to help with routine daily administration such as could be conducted by a project coordinator
If you hire your own project manager, we do encourage that researchers identify someone with project management/coordination skills. A project manager should be able to anticipate what is necessary on the project and put tools and measures in place to address upcoming needs, all with minimal direction from the investigator(s).
The ISA is happy to discuss what skills you might want to look for if hiring your own project manager. We can also help advertise the job posting to our networks, including to SFU’s Project Management Community of Practice.
Please see our Project Managers Tools and Resources to help your project manager get started.