ProfShankar Sankaran

I am a Professor of Organisational Project Management at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the Faculty of Design and Society the and a Core Member of the Robotics Institute at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology and member of the Industry Transformation Research Stream at my School.  I am also a core member of the UTS Climate Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC) at my faculty. I joined UTS in 2006 as a Senior Lecturer and was promoted to a Professor in 2014.

The research areas where I am creating  an impact are Project Governance,  Project Leadership and Sociotechnical Systems.

I am a Chief Investigator of the ARC Research Hub for Human-Robot Teaming for Sustainable and Resilient Construction (www.hartcon.org) since 2025. My role in this research hub is to develop sociotechnical systems principles to guide the development of human robot teaming solutions for industry. I am also the outreach and training leader at this hub to promote educational programs for professionals from the hub. From 2026, I am also a Chief Investigator in an ARC Discovery Grant investigating Project Governance and Governmentality as Collaborative Challenges led by the University of Sydney.

I have been involved in supervising 51 higher degree research students to completion and four of the students I supervised have been recognized for their excellent work through awards and recognition by the faculty and university.

The books I am working on in 2026 include  ‘Getting strategy implementation right: How can grand challenge projects help achieve the SDGs', 'Generative AI in managing projects: Balancing technology, ethics, and sustainability, 'Social licensing for large-scale renewable energy projects: From community opposition to co-creation through integrated technology, economy, governance and social life cycle assessment' and 'Projects in times of polycrises: A forward-looking synthesis of project management research for a world defined by turbulence, polycrises and complexity'. My full list of publications is available on Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UZSbLncAAAAJ&hl=en) 

I have won awards with Ralf Müller and Nathalie Drouin, including the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Research Achievement Award in 2022; the International Project Management Association Research Award in 2021; PMI’s David Cleland's Literati Award in 2021 and the David Cleland's Literati Award in 2026 for a book with Alejandro Romero-Torres and Jo Griffin.

I was a lead chief investigator in an Australian Research Council linkage grant on project governance and a chief investigator of an ARC linkage grant on leadership of not-for-profit organizations in aged and community care. I was also a principal investigator in three PMI-sponsored research programs: Balancing person-centered and team-centered leadership in projects; Governance of innovation in portfolios, programs and projects; and Practice-based study of portfolio management and strategic alignment in the construction sector.

I am an Associate Editor of the Project Management Journal where I promote research on how projects and programs help to alleviate humanitarian and societal concerns. I am a member of the College of Leadership and Management at Engineers Australia from where I promote Engineers Australia’s Initiative on Project Governance by Engineers since 2022. I am a Fellow of Engineers Australia, Project Management Institute(PMI) and International Project Management Association (IPMA).