Managing collaborative research projects: A synthesis of project management literature and directives for future research

•The paper describes a systematic literature review on the management of collaborative research projects.•From scientific literature project management challenges and proposed research results to overcome them are derived.•The knowledge is consolidated into three main paradoxes and four general management strategies.•Further research is proposed with a focus on the intersection of currently available research streams.

Collaborative research projects have emerged as a particular form of academia–industry interaction. Over the past ten to fifteen years they have received increasing attention in the project portfolio of public and private organisations as well as in the project management literature. They present specific challenges, demanding of adaptations and adjustments to existing project management approaches. By means of a systematic literature review we provide a comprehensive list of the main challenges associated with these projects, as well as the guidelines, tools & techniques, and conceptual results that have been proposed to overcome them. The findings are synthesised into three main paradoxes, four general management strategies, and two main research streams. Against this background, we propose directives for future research that serve to improve the transfer of scientific knowledge into practice.