RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ENHANCEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS THROUGH COLLABORATIVE APPLICATIONS

The objective of this paper consists of the analysis and implementation of collaborative applications, with the intention to contribute to an increased level of productivity in research projects management process. At first, a general framework of investigation of collaborative applications requirements and the subsequent technologies are presented. Furthermore, models are defined in order to be applied in distinct scenarios, for different institutions in the design of research and development projects. We aim to experimentally demonstrate that the in-house development of collaborative applications significantly contributes to the efficient allocation of human, material, time and financial resources for each activity of the projects. Consequently, the use of existing platforms allows to this process to become a very successful one.