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Project management for academics I: Managing a research pipeline

I am always honored when fellow scholars mention my name as someone worthy of being followed for advice on planning.

I am a very systematic planner and I love having my life neatly organized and planned (I am a Virgo, a Type A and an Upholder).

Drafts monthly plans

While I have taken Masters-level project management courses and have read the entire Project Management Institute PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), I have a very particular set of processes that work for me, and sometimes, work for other folks.

The one question I saw on Twitter today regarding how to do research planning prompted me to curate a list of resources and scholars whose research pipeline processes might be of help for anybody who follows me or reads my blog. Here is my Twitter thread.

While this thread was about project management, I had to discuss something equally important: if you are the principal investigator of a laboratory, or you use the lab model to engage your students and research assistants, you can’t develop your own research pipeline without consulting others. Each member of the team’s research pipeline needs to align with that of the principal investigator, and vice-versa.

A few respondents offered their own advice on research pipeline management and I link to their responses in my thread.

Overall, I do hope that this thread and blog post will be useful to scholars as they plan their research pipeline! Also grateful to every scholar I quoted here for sharing their processes.

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Posted in academia, planning, productivity, research.

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2 Responses

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  1. Rita Grácio says

    Thank you Dr Pacheco-Vega for these great tips- as usual!
    Is there “Project management for academics II”? I love a good sequel 🙂 Best, Rita

  2. Alan Parker says

    Your detailed explanation of combining Kanban boards with the Everything Notebook system is particularly helpful for maintaining organisation and tracking progress. Additionally, the advice on aligning individual research plans with overarching project goals is invaluable for collaborative academic environments. Excellent resource.



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