ACADEMIC RESEARCH MANAGEMENT BY MEANS OF AN INTEGRATED SOFTWARE SYSTEM Alina Bianca Andreica, Paul Serban Agachi “Babes-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania {alina, sagachi}@staff.ubbcluj.ro Abstract The paper focuses on research activity management in universities and its modelling by designing and implementing a dedicated software system as a tool for quantitative research evaluation and for supporting the design of competitive strategies in the field. We present the software system for Research Management that has been created and implemented at Babes-Bolyai University, its architecture and design principles and its significant impact in research activity management. The system’s impact on managing research activities is important not only for the members of the academic & research staff, but especially for research management levels: chairs, institutes, departments, faculties, university (institution). Keywords Software design and implementation, research activity management, university competitiveness, distributed information system 1. UNIVERSITIES’ RESEARCH MANAGEMENT – THE WORKING FRAMEWORK Academic institutions face nowadays complex challenges coming from a more dynamic and globalized world, and mainly aiming at implementing strategies for increasing their competitiveness, both in education and research. Universities’ rankings [11] are well-known and often used, though sometimes debated, tools for comparing academic institutions achievements: scientific outputs (internationally recognized scientific papers), quality of the academic staff (relevant international prizes), quality of the students and graduates [2] Besides strategies for improving academic programs [1], either in their classical form, or in e-learning frameworks, the development of scientific research is of utmost importance. From scientific results to technological transfer and innovations for the socio-economic and industrial environment, scientific research [2] is to be supported and developed by proficient strategies in order to become more competitive and relevant by means of the results that are obtained. The scientific contribution of an university is the one that “makes the difference” between universities. “World Class University” [7] is a concept that defines an excellent research university and it has been recently agreed that any country should have one or several World Class Higher Education institutions as driving forces for the progress of their own society [3] The increasing importance of research in universities comes with new challenges for universities’ management [9], regarding research activity management, which has to become more efficient and flexible. Moreover, a permanent contact of the university’s management to the scientific contribution of the academic staff, chairs / departments and faculties is extremely important, since it enables to forecast appropriate strategic actions for development. A good solution for this problem is the implementation of a dedicated information / software system [8], which provides specific facilities for research activity management both to the academic and research staff of the university, and to the organization’s management levels.