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Nowadays, the higher education sector has to deal with a scope of strategic issues that goes beyond the management of curricular processes and training courses. The growing competitiveness of the sector has led higher education institutions to give more attention to the marketing field. In fact, higher education institutions can be seen as brands and students as real consumers. Emotional marketing and its techniques, in particular, represent a range of opportunities for universities to strengthen their brands and their connection with the students. In this study, it is suggested that the aspects of attachment can be analyzed in the context of higher education as it aims to provide important insights for the success of university brands in a long-term perspective. Attachment has a relation with satisfaction, commitment, trust and loyalty. These aspects are relevant for universities especially since the relationship higher education institutions maintain with their students in the present and future depends, in certain part, on their degree of attachment and sense of belonging.

This chapter addresses the profession of research management and administration (RMA) in Portugal. It starts with a brief outline of the national research and innovation (R&I) ecosystem that contextualises the development of the profession. The RMA community is characterised and the expectations for the future of the RMA profession are summarised using data collected through a national online survey. It is posited that RMA in Portugal is an emergent career having developed key traits of a profession, namely common interests and practices, a concern with deepening specialised knowledge and skills, the existence of an organised network of practitioners, the offer of academic qualifications and training in the area, and the integration in international RMA communities of practice. Nevertheless, future developments in the European Research Area (ERA) are identified as a critical milestone that will influence the development and formal legislative institutionalisation of the RMA profession in Portugal.