Maximising the impact of your research through management and communication.  

Managing large-scale, long-term projects with multiple partners can be challenging. As an academic, you need to be able to devote your attention to your research, not to the minutiae of budgets and logistics.

You can access support to set up, manage, and maximise the impact of your large research project from the Research Impact Management Office (RIMO), a team in Imperial Enterprise.

The team can help you deliver your research project in the following ways:

Setting up your project

• Assembling the consortium. Help develop working agreements. Lead on communicating with partners, to make sure they receive all the information they need and meet deadlines.
• Collating information for funding proposal(s). Help you understand funders’ rules, requirements, and deadlines. Create easy-to-use templates and online collaborative space (like SharePoint or BOX) for consortium partners, and collate their input.
• Finance and budget support. Help you and the consortium partners understand what budget categories and spend they need to consider, which can involve projecting up to five years of costs. Assemble and help to ensure the project is budgeted appropriately.
• Writing and submitting proposal(s). Write components of the application documentation, such as governance structure of the consortium, project coordination/management and communication work package descriptions, and communication and dissemination strategy according to the funder’s requirements. Proofread the final proposal and help the PI complete and upload all required documentation on the funder’s system.

Managing your project

• Project management. Set up and maintain a clear project management structure.
• Contractual documents. Support the research office to deliver their requirements such as the Consortium Agreement, Grant Agreement, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and other contractual obligations.
• Reporting. Monitor and report on progress to make sure the project is being implemented according to the Description of Action, and is meeting the schedule and budget. Implement corrective measures if necessary.
• Communication. Maintain clear communication with all consortium partners on legal, contractual, ethical, financial, and administrative issues. Report to the funder and advisory boards and bodies as required.
• Events. Manage any required events, including meetings, workshops and general assemblies for consortium members.

Communication and dissemination

Communicating your results is increasingly understood as a key part of the process of research. RIMO helps to design and implement an effective communication and dissemination strategy for your project’s scientific publications, project milestones, and results and outcomes. This pathway to maximising impact is becoming a priority for many public research programmes, such as the EU’s Horizon Europe.

Find out more about how we support this.

Project closure

• Final reporting. Coordinate final reporting to funder(s), as per agreement.
• Financials. Reconcile the project finances. Work with your department to carry out final project audits and close accounts.
• Communication. Archive relevant online information and transform the digital presence as appropriate.

RIMO has substantial experience and expertise in supporting major publicly funded research programmes and projects and has been providing efficient project and communication management to large-scale academic initiatives led by Imperial academics for 15 years, including projects under the EU Horizon scheme - the world’s largest transnational research partnership.

Projects RIMO is currently working on have funding of more than €60 million between them, and involve more than 50 partners across Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas.

The RIMO team works on large collaborative research programmes that are mostly funded by UK government or EU funding bodies. However, we are not prescriptive and can explore other funding opportunities with you. On all our projects, we work in close collaboration with other Imperial professional services. If you would like support for a large-scale project that is funded by the private sector, Imperial Projects may be able to help you. Contact Imperial Consultants to find out more.