Project Management Process Digitalization Heatmap in EU Funded Research and Development Projects

Today, EU projects represent a significant factor in growth and progress of the Croatian economy. Since Croatia joined the European Union, it has utilised a significant amount of HRK for research and development projects. Research and development projects have a long lead time—over four years on average—from the beginning of the idea to the end of implementation. Several stakeholders are involved in the process, including institutions, academia, SMEs, and consulting firms. The level of readiness of the process for digitalisation varies depending on the project lifecycle phase. Since digitalisation is widely recognized as the key to success in service businesses, this study aims to establish a digitalisation heatmap for administrative and operational processes in the EU-funded research and development project lifecycle and recognize opportunities for digitalisation of the process. Data were collected through an empirical study of EU-funded project. Taken together, these findings suggest that there is a potential for further digitisation of the process, especially for consultants in the implementation phase and communication with the client as well as in state institutions. Further research should focus on identified subprocesses to successfully develop a methodology to increase digitisation readiness and on extraordinary circumstances that result in changes of lesser or greater significance to the project.