This work presents and disseminates the services and infrastructure required to manage research projects quantity and quality in higher education institutions. To achieve this objective, smart management of research offices, their processes and collaborative projects are of paramount importance in order to understand the underlying activities for effective decision making. This approach has been developed in depth considering the lifecycle of grants in a research office. The processes of a research office, its automation, importance of collaborative projects with academia and industry around the globe and their impact on research output have been developed first and then applied on a public higher education institution. The developed framework with its implementation example can be adopted by various research based organizations to efficiently manage and strengthen their research outlook.