Structure

Initially, we had hoped that each country chapter would be able to use the same structure, in order to aid with comparisons. While some have been able to adhere to the suggested structure well, many, for various and valid reasons have diverged to provide additional detail in some aspects and less in other areas. Additionally, a few country chapters do not focus on an entire country, or a single country, as appropriate for the region in question.

Each chapter has been able to give some information about the research ecosystem in the country, cover some of the major research funders, and give an idea of the number of universities and other research performing institutions. Normally, this is followed by a description of the evolution of research management and administration (RMA) in the country. Some can claim this to be a profession (or at least a semi-profession), but others are less able to do so. Where there is an RMA association (or in some cases more than one) then this will also be described. In some areas, there is as yet no formal association, and some looser networks may be included.

Often the reader may find it useful to refer to the appropriate regional history chapter in Section 1 for more detail on the development of the profession in the continent. In some cases, there is an unavoidable overlap between the continental history and the evolution of RMA in individual countries, particularly in Australasia and North America where the country count is small.

The demographics of the RMA community in the country, or at least an indication of it, should then be provided. Some countries have undertaken their own surveys, often through the local RMA association. Others have utilised data from the various Research Administration as a Profession (RAAAP¹) surveys, ideally the most recent RAAAP-3 dataset (Kerridge, Dutta, et al., 2022). Some countries have been unable to do so due to low response rates, and have perhaps provided a personal perspective. Readers should be aware data provided in these instances may lack robustness due to the small number of responses.

Finally, some authors have attempted to predict what the future will bring for RMAs in their countries and have given some concluding remarks.

It should be noted that while these chapters, and the book as a whole, tend to use the term Research Management and Administration, and the acronym RMA, these terms are not ubiquitous. Each chapter has used its national context and so the reader will observe other monikers being used interchangeably, for example Research Administration is common nomenclature in North America. This divergent identity is explored by Yang-Yoshihara, Poli, et al. (2023, Chapter 3.7) and more briefly by Kerridge (2021a, 2023a).

The chapters are ordered alphabetically by country (or region) name within an overall continental-scale block: Africa; North America, South America, Asia, Australasia; Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Middle-East. The chapters from each region were coordinated and corralled by a particular regional editor (and some of the regional editors also contributed to and coordinated other chapters in the book, and indeed the relevant country chapter in this section).

The first three chapters, covering African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa), were overseen by Therina Theron. The following three chapters on North American countries (Canada, Caribbean*, USA) were managed by Melinda Fischer (*one by Fernanda Oliveira). There are then a pair of South American chapters (Brazil, Colombia) provided by Fernanda Oliveira. Next are seven chapters from Asia (China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan*, Singapore, Viet Nam) that were managed by Makiko Takahashi (*one by Mark Hochmann). Then two Australasian (Australia, New Zealand) ones were sourced by Mark Hochmann. The grouping of eight chapters from Eastern Europe (*Baltic States, Belarus, Cyprus, Czechia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Western Balkans) was managed by Virág Zsár (*one by Jan Andersen), and the penultimate Western Europe group of 14 chapters (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain [Catalunya], Sweden, UK) was coordinated by Jan Andersen. The final group of three chapters from the Middle-East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) was also managed by Mark Hochmann.

Overall, the 42 geographic chapters in this section provide information on the state of RMA in 52 countries across 6 continents.

Summary

It is hoped that this section will be useful to all readers. Even if the country you are interested in is not to be found within this section, it is likely that there will be a country chapter that matches the state of RMA in the area of your interest. At the end of the section, you will find a short chapter (Kerridge, Andersen, et al., 2023, Chapter 5.44) from the regional editors reflecting on some of the similarities and differences in RMA across and between regions.