What makes a research manager?

Global survey shows what unites and divides professionals in different countries, say Simon Kerridge and Stephanie Scott.

The average research manager is a woman, and she has been in the job for about a decade. That much you could probably work out from a glance around the 2018 conference of the International Network of Research Management Societies (Inorms), which runs in Edinburgh from 4 to 7 June.

But to go deeper than that, you have to ask some questions. That’s what we’ve been doing for the past two years, as part of the Research Administration as a Profession project, funded by the United States National Council of University Research Administrators.