Georgia Tech faculty, researchers, and support staff spend considerable time each year gathering information for annual activity reports, promotion and tenure packages, curriculum vitae updates, grant applications, and related professional information and documentation. But, in the coming months, they will be able to more effectively maintain the information related to their scholarly and research activities using an Institute-wide system called GTScholar.

The new system is one of the outcomes of the Georgia Tech Strategic Plan and furthers the specific goal of sustaining and enhancing excellence in scholarship and research. The system is designed to save time and reduce administrative burdens by creating an internal online profile for each Georgia Tech faculty member and researcher. Once a profile is created, GTScholar simplifies the updating process, making it easier to prepare grant applications, find collaborators, and promote research work – all through one portal.  Essentially, GTScholar will ultimately streamline the management of professional, research, and scholarly information into a central repository.

“GTScholar will offer a service relevant to all Georgia Tech faculty members and researchers by compiling their research, teaching, publications, and professional activities information in one central location,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “As both a researcher and an administrator, I see the potential for multiple uses of this comprehensive, convenient system.”

GTScholar will:

• Generate annual activity and sponsor reports, as well as content for promotion and tenure packages.
• Produce CVs, including customized CVs for agencies such as National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.
• Provide configurable Web feeds for updating campus websites.
• Assist in capturing and preserving scholarly content in the Georgia Tech institutional repository, SMARTech.
• Facilitate collaborative research and networking opportunities.
• Provide up-to-date info on faculty/researcher publications, books, journals, and other scholarly activities.
• Help connect news media and industry professionals with experts.
• Provide access to the information needed by Georgia Tech’s communications professionals to identify faculty experts and promote their work.

"GTScholar will make it easier to identify research collaborators from across our entire campus," said Ravi Bellamkonda, associate vice president for Research and a biomedical engineering faculty member. "Our research sponsors are placing greater value on interdisciplinary activities, and this tool gives faculty a campuswide view of expertise, enabling the development of diverse teams spanning multiple units and departments. Additionally, GTScholar will enable us to get a better understanding of our scholarly impact, providing a mechanism to better recognize and celebrate the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students. "

The functionalities of GTScholar will be accomplished using a phased-in approach based on feedback from various campus groups. Beta testers are needed to discover flaws and improve the system’s usability; faculty/researchers interested in volunteering to test the system or wanting to share feedback and ideas, should email: gtscholar@gatech.edu.