Dr. Ron Elsenbaumer, Jeremy Forsberg, and Rajat Mittal, UT Arlington
A powerful web-based Collaborative Partnership has been developed to easily find research collaborators at your own institution, within your university system, within your local region, or across the globe. All UT System institutions are invited to join The Collaborative Partnership, a web-based infrastructure to empower individuals throughout academia, industry and federal/state government(s) to enhance the elements which make industry “clusters” successful. This is accomplished by:
- Facilitating the development of partnerships and solving problems together regardless of academic or industry affiliation
- Identifying the expertise and resources that exist and their geographic proximity to one another
- Speeding the movement of new ideas between academia and the marketplace
Recognizing that academia is the nation’s greatest untapped resource and that it must become an integral part of the marketplace, common resources within academia can be linked and organized tor foster collaborations, spur innovation, and solve problems; thereby more efficiently utilizing:
- People with Know-how and Expertise (faculty)
- Research Centers, Laboratories, Collaborative Groups
- Technologies and Patents
- Research Facilities and Equipment
UT Arlington has developed The Collaborative Partnership to organize and standardize these common resources within academia or consortia (or other professional entity) making them available for web-search across research teams, departments, colleges, and institutions.
As an example, consider responding to a funding opportunity directed at “pain”— With one click using the search keyword “pain”, users can access dozens of faculty members with pain research expertise in the Partnership. Think of it as a common storefront for those in academia, industry and government agencies to join forces in pursuit of commercialization and funding opportunities—in pain or any other area. “It gives faculty a resource to find collaborators,” says Ron Elsenbaumer, UT Arlington’s vice president for research. “If they’re pursuing a research grant, they can find out where the expertise is and put together a stronger proposal to win the grant.”
Currently, faculty and resources at UT Arlington and UT Pan American are searchable in the Partnership as the system was piloted, but the pilot is now over and Dr. Elsenbaumer encourages all UT System institutions to participate and join the Partnership.
From Humble Beginnings. Frustrated by institutional data fragmentation, Elsenbaumer and Forsberg established the Profile System to make all information about research and scholarly activity at UT Arlington easily accessible through the Web. Part content management system, part information repository and part Web page builder, the system is saving time and resources for faculty. For example, faculty can update profiles and webpages in real time, upload files (publications, works, reports, syllabi), and automatically generate curriculum vitae, biographical sketches, performance evaluations and more.
The Profile System led to The Collaborative Partnership. The Profile System was then extended beyond faculty information to link data about research centers, facilities, equipment, technology, laboratories and research groups. “If universities have any portions of this information stored in a database or available online, it’s easy for them to become part of the Collaborative Partnership; it does not require a highly technical skill level to map common information. If an entity already has their information well organized in their own systems, connecting an entire institution to the Partnership can take as little as a day,” says Jeremy Forsberg, director of Grant and Contract Services. “It’s important to note that the information is not stored outside the universities and each university controls what is searchable by the partnership while maintaining their own security and business practices. Nothing is invasive in the process.” Implementing the Profile System is not necessary for connecting to the Partnership, it is only one of three ways entities can join.
“Creating a system that was easily searchable was very important,” Elsenbaumer says. “We also had to think of ways to market our research capacity in a way that is easily accessible to the outside world.”
Accessible, indeed. Launched in May, the site received 40,000 hits the first month and more than 50,000 the second month. What’s more, over 80 percent of those viewing the site were sent there by external world wide search engines like Google and Yahoo, with UT Arlington profiles mostly ending up on the first page of results.
Future Plans. The next step is to incorporate databases with funding opportunities. Not yet launched, the Collaborative Funding Network utilizes daily downloads from grants.gov to provide one place to find funding opportunities and related collaborators and resources within the partnership. It allows experts to easily establish research teams within or outside their own institution, and connect through an automated email messaging system. Their communication can be organized at the individual, university, university system and state levels as well as by geographic region within the state.
The key to maximizing the network’s potential is increased participation, says Elsenbaumer. “We want all UT System institutions to join the partnership,” he said. “Take pain research, for example. The network would allow you to search for this type of expertise at all institutions instead of just one. The resulting collaboration possibilities could tremendously strengthen a research proposal by giving it more depth and a broader perspective. It would help UT System institutions become more competitive.”
And help millions of Americans find relief from chronic pain.
More information:
The Collaborative Partnership:
www.uta.edu/research/collaborate
The Profile System:
www.uta.edu/expertise
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