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Australian Project Management Researcher Forum
Australian Researcher Forum The Australian Institute of Project Management, under the auspices of the Knowledge and Research Council (KRC), recently held the first national project management Researcher Forum in Sydney. The Forum was developed and implemented by KRC members Andrew Sense from the University of Wollongong, Jill Owen from the University ofNSW’s Australian Defence Force Academy and Chivonne Watt from the University of Technology, Sydney. The Forum attracted 47 active researchers from across Australia, a participation level that represented 75% of the Australian project management researcher community and was higher than expected given the academic year had just begun. The Forum delegates ranged from full-time PhD and Masters students to professors who are well known internationally within the project management field. The disciplines represented at the Forum included commerce, civil construction and engineering, sociology, health sciences and information systems. Ian Baxter, the General Manager of the AIPM attended the evening session and closed the Forum, saying “this level of interest was unexpected and the collaborations that are obviously going to develop will ultimately enhance the professionalism of the industry”. The event primarily provided avenues for the researchers to connect with each other and to share their project management research progress and dilemmas. It was an opportunity not previously pioneered in Australia and one that was also supported by the Project Management Institute (PMI) who sponsored the cocktail evening and the University of Technology, Sydney who hosted the Forum. This initiative was a catalyst to help establish a ‘community of project management researchers’ where researchers can work collaboratively in the project management field. It also provides a forum to create or identify and seize opportunities to conduct innovative research in the field and develop industry research partnerships. Further outputs from the event will include conference papers and journal articles and a directory of Australian Project Management Researchers, which will eventually be available for the broader community to access. A second initiative involving project management research in this country is the inaugural Asia-Pacific Project Management Research Conference. This will be hosted by Monash University in Victoria in February 2010 with the theme of ‘Project Management as Social Systems’. For further information on any of the work being undertaken by the KRC or the Forum, please contact Richard White at: rwhite@aipm.com.au.
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