RECAMM: A Research Capability Maturity Model for Managing Technological Innovations

Companies, private and publicly funded research institutions have been engaged in research projects and research programs. This paper describes a research capability maturity model for managing technological innovations. The insights for this proposal were derived from studying a variety of research organizations for managing technological innovations in a publicly funded research institute in Singapore. The model was implemented over a period of time with different degrees of success in Kent Ridge Digital Labs, Singapore which has since been renamed Institute for Infocomm Research. The suggested maturity model has five layers - Ad-Hoc, Directed, Managed, Optimized, and Outsourced. Every research organization is likely to operate in any one of these five levels. The first fours levels can easily be managed entirely within an organization. The transition from the fourth to the fifth level is indeed very challenging and requires establishing the right set of frameworks for collaboration. The paper will describe the relationship between an organization's researchers and the research partners and the issues that become important at each of these levels. Some research organizations may have technology innovation directed research projects that operate across all the five levels. The paper will discuss the nature of technology innovation projects that lend themselves best to each of the five levels