Glad to share my experience as project manager via participating in the course Project Management for Researchers – Modules A & B across AAU Research Academy (AAURA).

It was a great opportunity to focus in Module A on the significance of the project tools in relation to fundraising and to answer the questions: What are the drivers for project success? How do state S.M.A.R.T. project objectives?. What is stakeholder analysis and how to conduct it?. What are typical milestones and how do track and manage them throughout the project?. What are the methodical risk management techniques, to help identify and justify necessary risk mitigations for management?. What does a project manager (PM) do?.

As a follow-up on Module A, I was putting myself on stage as the leader by conducting two successive meetings of “Formulation of ideas” & “Setting the objectives” with responsibilities to stage the group’s work, turning knowledge into skills to engage the team members and achieve common ownership. Module B is staged as a “project simulator” with getting feedback from the course mentor and team in a safe and rewarding environment. I was so excited by the “Learning Points” from each meeting in the group: (1) smile of the project manager works, (2) multidisciplinary thinking, (3) the importance of initial framing of the task and meeting, (4) the difficulty of staying in the whole brain, listening to group suggestions, (5) an iterative approach can work “Jumping back and forth” between Purposes, Deliverables, and Success Criteria, (6) a good structure is important if you should manage the time, (7) a good facilitator is important because there can be a wide variety of opinions, (8) end the meeting with a wrap-up and summary.

I also learned from other PM members’ experiences that the best example of leadership is leadership by example, and being a project manager is like being an artist, you have the different colored process streams combining into a work of art. Extrapolating my experience as project manager and the knowledge that I have learnt from the course and applying it to my MSCA project can be a catalyst for accelerating and achieving breakthroughs. I have designed a survey to gather and engage stakeholders relevant to the CoBiol area of action. Therefore, I am inviting you to complete it by clicking here to share with us your inputs and experiences on which I am seeking perspective to better fulfill my mission. Attendees to the survey will receive the final survey results after completion.