Life should not be about getting used to unfairness, but about how we can create an environment that provides a fairer experience for everyone.
Research fund
APM offer two main types of Research funding: The research fund, which has an annual call and larger commissioned studies.
We are also open to collaborative research opportunities, therefore if you have any proposals that you feel would benefit APM’s members and the wider project management community please contact us using the form below.
APM Commissioned Research
Commissioned studies seek to address emergent themes, knowledge gaps and to answer some of the big questions for the project profession. These studies are the flagship activity of APM’s research programme and are amongst the most downloaded and influential of all APM publications.
We do not currently have any open tenders, but they will be published here as and when they become available.
APM Research Fund
The APM Research Fund aims to provide funding for small-scale research projects or to provide seed funding for larger research projects.
How can the APM Research Fund help me?
In addition to funding, we can help provide access to data and research participants through access to its corporate members, amongst others, who wish to be involved in cutting edge research activities. By providing a platform for research at its events, publications and journals and through the use of its media channels, we can aid researchers with disseminating findings and help measure the impact of their work.
The application period for the current year's research fund has now concluded. Thanks to all participants this year, we anticipate your continued engagement and the submission of your excellent proposals in the future.
The upcoming edition of the research fund is scheduled for launch by the end of 2023/ early months of 2024. Further updates about the research fund will be published on APM's research website and across APM's LinkedIn and other social media channels.
FEATURED RESEARCH
The Blind Spot
Since 2018, this study has set out to explore whether the project management profession was ready to address Grand Challenges. This is because the political legitimacy of a newly chartered profession in society depends on the extent to which it contributes to addressing challenges, such as climate change, poverty, lack of sanitation, healthcare, human space exploration and blockchain
FEATURED RESEARCH
The Relationship Between The Board of Directors’ Social Capital and Construction Firms’ Environmental Profiles 
Our study conducted by Azar Shahgholian and David Bryde (Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool) takes the first step in providing data-driven evidence of the power of the social network in enhancing organisational performance relating to achieving environmental sustainability goals in a project-intensive industry sector.
Previous featured research
How to use AI technology in project management has had a lot of attention recently and the impact of AI has become a popular topic to debate when predicting the future of the project profession.
The practice of sustainability involves understanding the ways individuals and teams in projects and organisations respond to the sustainability targets set nationally and internationally.
PwC reported that “Gartner forecasts that 80% of project management roles will be eliminated by 2030 as AI takes on traditional project management functions such as data collection, tracking and reporting.”
Previous research fund studies
Eliminating modern slavery from projects
This research aims to raise awareness of modern slavery within projects and to understand how project practices need to change to eliminate it.
The wellbeing of project professionals
The awareness of mental health and wellbeing issues in societies is increasing. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s report shows the whole of Europe is struggling with the burden of mental ill health, which affects an estimated 84 million people – one in six.
Quantification of social benefits on public and third sector projects
This research project is a critical evaluation of current methods used by project planners and evaluators in the public and third sectors to quantify social benefits and costs.
How can we handover projects better?
How do we improve the transition of a project from the project team delivering in a project life cycle to the end users’ business as usual activities, to ensure the realisation of the benefits the project set out to achieve?
Scaled Agile project management
A study on the practical adoption of agile methodologies this study aims to investigate the level of practical adoption of those programme and portfolio components addressed by Scaled Agile methodologies.
Strategies for dealing with difficult stakeholders
This research project focuses on the psycho-social aspects of project management and specifically on how project managers cope with difficult stakeholders.
How is systems thinking used in projects?
This study builds on the work used to establish the Systems Thinking SIG as they seek to identify the range of activities classified as systems thinking and how these are seen to add value to projects.
This research has sought to draw out project leadership competences from the perspective of practising project leaders, aspiring project leaders, heads of profession, project sponsors and clients.
Understanding leadership in the context of transformation projects
This research aims to advance understandings of individual, team and organisation-wide leadership capabilities for successfully delivering transformation projects, and ways in which they can be fostered.
Capturing and evaluating individual and social factors that influence critical project decisions
The study seeks to increase project management knowledge in three interrelated areas; firstly, identifying how decision-makers actually make decisions in the complex situations they encounter during a project’s life.
This research project aims to address the representation of women in the leadership of major projects. It forms part of a broader action research programme (ARPL) on the leadership and delivery of major projects.