DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTEREST The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with  
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. FUNDING The author(s) received no  
financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Project Management 
Research and 
Practice  

Vol. 4  
Jan.-June 2017

© 2017 by the author(s). This 
is an Open Access article 
distributed under the terms 
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Attribution 4.0 International 
(CC BY 4.0) License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/4.0/), allowing third parties 
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material in any medium 
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Citation: Ingason, H.T. 2017. 
Collaboration between 
PMRP and IPMA. Project 
Management Research and 
Practice, Article ID 5435. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/
pmrp.v4i0.5435

ISSN 2207-1415 | Published 
by UTS ePRESS | http://pmrp.
epress.lib.uts.au 

PAGE NUMBER NOT FOR  
CITATION PURPOSES

COMMENTARY

Collaboration between PMRP and IPMA

Helgi Thor Ingason
Reykjavik University

Corresponding author: Helgi Thor Ingason, Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, 101 Reykjavík, 
Ijsland. helgithor@ru.is

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/pmrp.v4i0.5435

Research is a fundamental building block of every profession, and project management is 
no exception. The International Project Management Association (IPMA) was established 
by academics, research has always been acknowledged by IPMA and the association has 
supported research in different ways. We see it as our duty to share knowledge in project 
management, cooperate and facilitate cooperation between project management researchers 
and motivate project management researchers…and, by investigating specific areas, and 
thereby influencing the discipline. To achieve this we collaborate with other organisations that 
share our interest and I am glad to declare that IPMA will be collaborating with the journal 
Project Management Research and Practice.

An example of the traditional research related activities of IPMA are the annual 
research conferences. They are not like typical conferences where most of the research 
happens beforehand and the participants are primarily listeners. Instead, we prepare the 
structure and work methods thoroughly and then invite selected presenters to come and 
inspire the participants with their lectures on chosen topics. The participants are thus 
a mixture of practitioners and scholars and the value lies primarily in what happens 
during the conference, during the fruitful discussions, workshops, world café sessions and 
networking that results when people with different backgrounds and perspectives meet 
to discuss important subjects. The 5th IPMA research conference will be held in South 
Korea, November 2-3, 2017.

Another example of traditional research related activities of IPMA are the annual research 
awards where we have three categories. The IPMA Young Researcher Award is given for cutting 
edge research of a young researcher, typically a PhD project. The IPMA Research Award is 
given for cutting edge research project of a researcher or a team. Finally, we have the life time 
achievement awards where we honour individual project management researchers for their 
contribution over their career.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/pmrp.v4i0.5435
http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/pmrp.v4i0.5435
http://pmrp.epress.lib.uts.au
http://pmrp.epress.lib.uts.au
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Ingason

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CITATION PURPOSES

Project Management Research and Practice,  Vol. 4, Jan.-June 2017  

There are many possibilities for collaboration between IPMA and PMRP. Readers 
should expect to immediately see reports (to be delivered annually) from the past IPMA 
Research Conferences and commentary from last year’s research award winners. It is our 
goal to publish relevant and interesting information about some of the best senior and young 
project management researchers in the world and interpret their findings to empower project 
management practitioners around the world.

Dr. Helgi Thor Ingason IPMA Research Coordinator, Professor and Head of the Masters 
in Project Management program at Reykjavik University

About the Author
Dr. Helgi Thor Ingason is a full professor at Reykjavik University. He is co-head (with 
Dr. Haukur Ingi Jonasson) of the MPM – Master of Project Management – program at the 
university. The research fields of Dr. Ingason range from quality- and project management 
to system dynamics and renewable energy, production, transport and utilization, changes 
in the energy infrastructure and energy carriers of the future. Dr. Ingason has reported on 
his research at conferences and in several reviewed conference and journal papers. He is the 
co-author of 6 books in the Icelandic language on project management, strategic planning, 
product development and quality management. He is also a co-author of the book Project 
Ethics, published by Gower in January 2013