PI Role Insights
The Principal Investigator (PI) can be defined as ‘the person charged with direct responsibility for completion of a funded project, directing the research and reporting directly to the funding agency.’
definition from Cunningham et al, (2016) Publicly Funded Principal Investigators as Transformative Agents of Public Sector Entrepreneurship, in (ed)David Audretsch and Albert N. Link, Essays in Public Sector Entrepreneurship, Springer, pp.67-93]
Principal Investigators: What We Know
DID YOU KNOW THAT PIs...
Leadership
- are considered the linchpin for scientific transformation and advancement
- have a clear vision of scientific contribution
- strategise consistently about achieving vision
- adopt a proactive strategic posture to shape new scientific avenues
- are focused and highly selective in relation to research funding
Collaboration
- are open to all forms of collaboration
- need to be effective at identifying, creating and delivering value for stakeholders
Knowledge generation
- are motivated by the prioritisation of new knowledge
- open new scientific trajectories or choose to enhance existing ones
Role responsibilities and tasks
- accumulate role practices
- learn about the role on the ‘job’
- experience role identity changes within the PI role
- face managerial challenges (project management and project adaptability)
- identify potential impact on society as one of the top three motivations for scientists to be a PI
- identify technology transfer and commercialization as the most challenging tasks
- consists of four role identities - science networker, research contractor, project manager and entrepreneur
Why Scientists Choose to
Become A PI?
Pull Factors
- Control
- Career ambition and advancement
- Drive and ambition
Push Factors
- PI skills and experience
- Lack of options
- Pressure of the role
For more details and underlying research on these
insights, visit our Reports and academic publications page.
Video
Medical Device PIs and Impact
