Limitations of project management when managing research: An empirical study at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center

The impressive development of science and technology, after World War II, drove research to massively be organized as projects and managed with the methods of project management. The application of project management methods requires the precise formulation of the project in propositions including the goals, constrains and operations. In contrast, the goal of scientific propositions is sometimes ambiguous. This article disentangles the limitations project management methods when managing research since they are unable neither to face the wide spectrum of projects research organizations deal with which might require different sort of management forms nor to face the tension between creativity and productivity research organizations coexist with. The research reveals researchers' views on research management's problems, and show a common position on the difficulty to understanding the paradox. This work is important to clarify how research is said to be managed and how it is really managed and leaves the possibility to implement a new research management approach.