Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/392125
Every Project will take its own twists and turns during its course and so it needs to be monitored. For sponsored research or contract research the funder will be particularly interested to be kept abreast of what is happening under the Research Contract. For collaborative research all participants will need to keep up to speed with progress (or lack of it) so that they can work together efficiently. Project Manager Each participant should appoint a Project Manager to be the focal point for managing the Research Project for it. Such person must obviously be suitably qualified and experienced but need not be one of the key scientists involved in the research. In fact, where available personnel permit, it can be advantageous to have someone, who is slightly divorced from the research itself, undertaking the management. In the Research Contract there should be some indication of the amount of time each Project Manager will commit to the Project. This may be by reference to the number of full time days or as percentage of his or her working time or by more general statements such as "such hours as are reasonably required for the purposes of the Project". Your institution needs to be clear as to whether its Project Manager is to give this Research Project priority over his or her other work. It should be the Project Manager's duty to keep records of what he or she does in relation to the Project and of those things which his or her appointor does. These records should be available for other parties to the Research Contract to inspect. They will obviously provide key evidence in relation to who has done what and whether what they have done accords with their respective obligations under the Research Contract. The Project Manager must take responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Project. They should not have the power to change the key points of the Research Plan but they should have authority to make slight changes in relation to other minor issues. This may be, for instance, taking supplies of consumables from a different supplier, where quality is not compromised. Clearly there must be some financial constraints on the Project Manager's ability to change things, but they should have flexibility within agreed limits. Monitoring Section 8 30