Advanced study of project ownership challenges in research organisation

This study focuses on discussing and analysing the results of the project steering group maturity review executed at VTT in 2012 and 2013. The first survey was conducted for 50 projects whose complexity level varied between medium and high. One of the major outcomes of the study is the definition and role of the project owner in multi-national projects co-funded by more than one organization. These types of projects typically include a large consortium in which project manager needs to be competent to lead both internal and external people. The results of this study promote the development of communications between line organization and project managers, which is also valid when managing the consortiums including external partners. The second study was performed by interviewing 3 project managers, Chief Financial Officer, 2 line managers and project procedure developer at VTT. The results were benchmarked against 7 other organisations in Europe. One major outcome of the study was that VTT should pay more attention on project life-cycle planning. In overall, theanalysed methodologies arewell competitive with the counter organisations. The results of the review lead us to consider ways to develop and try out new project management practices on the DESERVE-Artemis project. The project has a multi-national feature, including 25 European automotive manufacturers and their suppliers and research organisations working together. One example is the method of mentoring young talents in a project management career with close collaboration between the steering group representative of VTT and the young project manager. In this article, the role of the project owner as a supervisor and mentor of a project manager has been examined.