PBI Research Institute's mission, history and organisation

The institute's mission

The mission of PBI Research Institute is to create and implement new knowledge within the international project business for practitioners and the scientific community alike. To fulfill this mission, our institute conducts clinical research projects that seek to answer questions arising from our business partners' strategies and from the scientific community.

History

The institute originates from research programmes started in 1993 between Åbo Akademi University and firms in the project-based industry. The research projects undertaken in the 1990s were characterised by a high degree of knowledge creation involving both practitioners and researchers from management, engineering, and the humanities. In order to ensure continuity of the research, the Foundation for Project Research was created in 2001 with the purpose of providing an interdisciplinary home for all the basic and applied research programme activities of PBI Research Institute. 

Organisation

PBI Research Institute is governed by the Foundation for Project Research. The aim of the foundation is to promote and support research within business management, without financial gain, especially concerning activities in project-based industry.

The institute consists of two parts: the Foundation for Project Research and its subsidiary company, the Research Institute for Project Based Industry. The foundation controls the subsidiary, in which a minority position is held by senior staff at the institute. The foundation is a non-profit entity with the purpose of advancing and supporting research on management and organisations with a specific focus on the international project industry. All data-gathering activities and application of concepts and processes occur within the subsidiary. The institute has a co-operative agreement with Åbo Akademi University for collaboration on research projects and for support of postgraduate studies.