The article establishes how a membership association, following shared and intersecting strategies around competency and professional recognition frameworks, extends research management and administration (RMA) professionalization. Computer-mediated design using asynchronous sources provided data for thematic, narrative analysis within an interpretive, qualitative approach. The Association was found to be an expert organization proficient in using boundary-spanning strategies that were shared systemically to advance RMA professionalization, specifically in the Global South. Individual research managers and administrators (RMAs) also may claim their experiential spaces more powerfully, even in contradictory academic domains where qualifications are prized. This is supported by an open-ended system, emblematic of the complexities of this day. The setting of standards for professionalization of RMA has secondary, yet targeted, impact on policies and practices of funding agencies and governments who invest in science and research. The study has surfaced the nature of boundary spanning within RMA professionalization focusing on competency and professional recognition frameworks, areas on which literature is mostly silent. The strategic credibility of creating systemic 'openness' across intersecting, yet distinct domains, has been posited.