Team Building, Grant Seeking and Project Administration

The various research techniques introduced in earlier modules need to be viewed in the broader context of how they will be supported and applied. Doing research is a little like running a business. No matter how good the ideas are and how technically proficient one might be at doing the job, the success of the business depends largely on the structures that are put into place to get the job done. To draw an analogy, doing research in isolation is the business equivalent of running a small manufacturing business as a sole trader. To expand the business beyond this one needs to work with or employ other people (i.e. build or join a team) and capital is needed to do this (i.e. research grants), and this capital needs to be used efficiently and effectively and in accordance with the guidelines of those people (c.f. banks) that provided it (i.e. project management). The researcher then needs to produce a product and sell this product into the market place to generate a return to the business (i.e. completing research and publishing it). This module discusses the issues of research team building, obtaining funds and subsequent project management. In the following module, issues associated with documenting and disseminating the research findings are discussed.