When you think about groundbreaking health research, administration and management might not be the first thing to come to mind, but maybe they should.
In April 2025, the NOVA University hosted a 3-day intensive workshop for its research managers as part of the EUTOPIA_HEALTH initiative. Set against the backdrop of NOVA’s beautiful campus in Lisbon, the workshop aimed at strengthening institutional capacities and alignment in research and innovation management.
EUTOPIA_HEALTH aims to cultivate collaboration across health-related scientific areas within the EUTOPIA alliance, specifically addressing imbalances in funding and opportunities in the three Widening countries (Portugal, Slovenia, and Romania). The project aims to strengthen an integrated institutional approach, driving excellence in health research and innovation, while ensuring meaningful societal impacts.
This workshop served as a crucial step toward these goals by emphasizing institutional alignment, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of support provided to researchers, and encouraging peer-to-peer learning and the exchange of best practices across research domains.
Research managers from diverse domains across NOVA University prepared a prior mapping exercise, which reflected on their roles and served as a roadmap during the entire workshop.
One key focus was exploring ways to improve coordination across the different stages of the research life cycle. In interactive group sessions, participants mapped how NOVA’s research support offices, including pre- and post-grant award offices, technology transfer offices, ethics committees, and communication departments, could effectively support researchers at the phases of ideation, implementation, and dissemination. Workshop like these are essential because they help the team find common ground, clarify the roles, and ultimately align the goals for greater impact.
One of the main insights was recognizing the dangers of ‘mission drift’, which occurs when support services lose sight of the institution's core goals due to grey zones and lack of common definitions. Common KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) could help align support services with the institutional core values.
Finally, participants engaged in an interactive role-playing session emphasizing their role as horizontal leaders, making them critical connectors between institutional goals and research excellence. Through a scenario-based role-play exercises, the participants practiced strategies to identify potential conflicts and improve collaboration across the research life cycle. These often realistic exercises may have accidentally revealed their hidden acting talents, but the real goal was to emphasize the importance of their key roles as bridges between the institution’s core values and researchers.
NOVA’s research managers now have practical strategies to address alignment issues, strengthen interdepartmental cooperation, and enhance support for researchers. The insights learned in Lisbon will shape the future of EUTOPIA_HEALTH initiatives, further strengthening the EUTOPIA alliance.
The next workshop for research managers is set to take place in Cluj, Romania! Stay tuned for more updates!