Management of academic projects in higher education institutions under the focus of the professor and researcher

Risk management is adecision making and execution process that aims to identify, assess, and control threats and effects of risk in an organization. To increase the success rate of project development, the literature suggests the need for effective risk management practices. Although this management is a fundamental task for organizations and their projects, they not always perceived it, risking possible failures. In this context, this study presents a systematic investigation to identify how professors/researchers understand and practice mechanisms to support project management and its risks; it also sought to characterize the types of academic projects and the success percentages obtained in their development. The survey included 101 participants from 10 Higher Education Institutions. The results indicated that the majority of current academic project managers had not yet been encouraged to adopt formal management tools, were unaware of consolidated strategies to support and existing obstacles in management, and signaled the need for such mechanisms as a way to improve the results of their projects. The search results revealed the importance of guiding and using mechanisms to support project management and its risks, apparently still little used in the context of academic projects