This paper focuses on the researcher’s PhD project and presents a research proposal to describe the research, which aims to understand how leadership contributes to navigating urgency in inter-organisational projects. Urgency is often experienced in projects, not only because projects tend to be used for rapidly responding to situations viewed as urgent such as disasters or pandemic crises, but also because setting a predetermined deadline tends to give rise to a sense of urgency. Urgency can have both positive and negative impacts on projects, making it a double-edged sword. Navigating urgency requires leadership actors to respond to urgent situations. However, project research lacks a comprehensive understanding of how to navigate urgency, especially from the lens of project leadership. Inter-organisational projects, in other words, projects that involve multiple organizations, are particularly challenging with respect to the navigation of urgency because different perspectives of urgency in these different organisations can cause conflict in navigating urgency. To fill this gap, this research adopts a qualitative multi-method design, integrating three approaches: a narrative literature review, a diary method, and interviews. Preliminary findings from the literature review include: providing a definition of urgency based on its key characteristics; identification of typical situations of urgency in project settings; and providing insights into the role of leadership in navigating these situations. The expected contribution for this research is to offer a comprehensive insight into the role of leadership in the navigation of urgency in projects, especially in inter-organisational projects.