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Join Us

ARMS is the professional society for anyone engaged in management and administration of research, and we welcome new members.

If your organisation has a large team managing, administering and supporting research, you can involve all these team-members in ARMS through corporate membership.

If your employer already has a corporate membership, you can be added to it at no extra cost. Check the corporate membership list.

If you are employed or active in research management and administration at any level and in any sector of the research community, you can join ARMS as an individual member.

If you are not directly employed or active in research management but want to be part of our society, you can become an associate member.

By joining ARMS, you can benefit from:

• Our annual conference, which attracts hundreds of participants
• High quality, targeted professional development and networking events run throughout the year by regional chapters and special interest groups
• Online resources, some exclusive to ARMS members
• Awards and financial support for professional development opportunities
• Our mentoring program
• Regular updates via electronic newsletters, a printed magazine and emails about the latest developments
• And more!

To Join ARMS

• Download the Individual Membership form in Word format
• Join under a corporate membership using this online form
• Use the form at the end of our membership invitations
• Email or call +612 9431 8668 to discuss your membership needs

Why Join Us

Below are stories from some of our current ARMS members - they highlight how ARMS has contributed to their career.

Caroline Pratt
Research Manager
Bio-Protection Research Centre
Lincoln University

Caroline is the Research Manager for the Bio-Protection Research Centre, a national Centre of Research Excellence, funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and hosted by Lincoln University, New Zealand. She has more than 16 years Research Management experience in University, Crown Research Institute and Private Provider research environments, starting with a 5 year term in Science Planning in the Strategic Development Group at Landcare Research. She then went on to manage the Research Office at Lincoln University, worked at a Private Provider as the Research Manager and Programme Manager of a multi-party FRST-funded Programme in its establishment phase and then moved back to Lincoln University, this time as the Research Manager for the Bio-Protection Research Centre. Caroline oversees all of the Centre's bidding and contract negotiation for research, whether the research is government or industry funded. She facilitates the information flow between research funders and the scientific staff in the Centre and works to encourage collaboration to achieve tangible research outcomes. She works with all the scientists funded through the Centre to ensure best practice research management and provides on-going reporting to funders on delivery of research outputs.

Caroline is a member of ARMS and the 2011 Co-Convenor of the NZ Chapter of ARMS. She has been a financial member of ARMS since 1999 and continues to enjoy the networking, professional development opportunities and collegiality of all the other ARMS members (especially the NZ Chapter and at the annual conference).

Some of the benefits of being a member of this large professional body include helping to shape development of all Research Managers and ARMS informs us of what is and isn’t possible in today’s competitive research environment. Being an Australasian Society, it usefully exposes the NZ Chapter Members to Australian best practice.

Caroline has two undergraduate degrees - one in science, one in management and a Masters of Science (Restoration Ecology in Agro-Ecosystems).

Simon Kerr
Research Manager
Melbourne School of Land and Environment
University of Melbourne

Like many ARMS members, I fell into research management by fortune, rather than design. I don’t believe I ever day dreamed at school about being a research manager! However, fortune favours the adaptable, and after a few years as an academic I left my job to chase new horizons. When I eventually needed to earn some money, a research management position (Senior Research Advisor) turned up fortuitously, and I applied with enthusiasm matched only by my complete ignorance of the job.

ARMS appeared on my radar within the first year, and I attended the Brisbane INORMS conference in 2006. That was when I realised I was part of something much bigger and much more important than I had hitherto realised.

Since then I have gotten deeply involved deeply with ARMS because I have now realised that this is where my professional future lies. ARMS helped me join the dots between all the various parts of the research services profession. Its conferences are the year’s professional highlight where I am exposed to new ideas, kept up to date with the external drivers of research and meet colleagues from all over.

Most of all, though, my enthusiasm for the work of ARMS comes from my strong sense of the future for the research management profession. Changes in how research is organised and managed are resulting in a dramatic need to professionalise research management. ARMS is at the forefront of much of this, and one of the best avenues to learn, grow and enjoy our profession

Ian McMahon
Senior Policy Advisor, Policy and Planning Office,
The Australian National University and Director Research, Group of Eight

I have been involved in research administration since the late 1980s, initially working for a funding agency and then in a university research office. At that time the Australian Research Council had commenced holding an annual meeting for research administrators held in Canberra, primarily to provide advice on ARC programs. What impressed me at the time was the collegiality of the network of university research administrators which operated on an informal basis in Australia. The ARC meetings were supplemented by informal but regular state-based meetings of university research administrators. Once I commenced as the head of the research office at the Australian National University, I continued attending both the ARC meetings and the meetings of the NSW/ACT.

I benefited enormously from the network of contacts which arose from these meetings and from the willingness of the research administrators group to share their experience and knowledge. As the functions of the research office grew more complex, I relied on the network to help me with developing the knowledge and expertise I needed to manage the functions of the office.

For me it was a logical step for the network to morph from an annual meeting held in Canberra and a number of informal groups to a formal research management society, ARMS. I have been a member of ARMS since its inception and continue to benefit from my involvement with the Society; the world of research management is in constant change and there is always something new to learn.