Research Next Enters New Phase

Aug 25, 2022

With the research landscape rapidly changing, Georgia Tech must respond to external forces to address local, national, and global challenges and produce novel ideas ​and actionable solutions.​ In alignment with the Institute strategic plan, Research Next positions Georgia Tech to respond to future challenges with innovation, expertise, creativity, and a dedication to improving the human condition.

“Georgia Tech envisions a future in which we continue to educate transformative researchers, strive for inclusive excellence and truth, and leverage our scale and resources to address the most urgent challenges of our time,” said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech. “Our plan is people centered, value based, and data informed. Like the Institute’s strategic plan, this belongs to all of us, and it will be up to us to make it a reality.”

To create the research strategy, Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students assessed the current landscape for research-intensive universities. They identified the internal and external forces and factors that shape the research ecosystem. Out of this came a research landscape analysis. The Phase II work capitalized on the rich insights from the Phase I to identify 16 goals and 50 objectives for Georgia Tech to work toward over the next decade.

Now, seven initial projects have been identified to support the vision of the Research Next.  They are large-scale, campus-wide projects. Four of the teams have assembled, and efforts are underway, including:

• Project management support: large-scale projects and scaling PI operations
  • This group develops project management recommendations that are proactively supporting researchers and thinking through the needs of both singular, large activities, as well as the demands for larger efforts distributed over a range of projects.
• Research faculty engagement & career development
  • This group takes a deeper look at Georgia Tech research faculty environment, including hiring, mentoring, career development, community and work environment, promotion, and compensation approaches.
• All members of the research enterprise feel connected to and included in and able to contribute to the mission, conduct, and products of research
  • This group makes our community feel appreciated and empowered by creating an environment and culture in which all can grow, thrive, and add value.
• Strategic & operational expansion of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) & minority serving institutions (MSIs) research partnerships
  • This group identifies and streamlines processes that enable collaborative research with MSIs; develops an ongoing process for identifying, networking, and finalizing potential research collaborations across Georgia Tech and MSIs; and establish/maintain a network of sources, sponsors, and new paradigms for funding long-term research partnerships. 

Three additional teams will be launched in FY23, including:

• Research prioritization & annual strategic analysis
  This team will monitor progress and metrics across all Research Next initiatives, as well advise the research enterprise on large research initiatives and directions.
• Organizational structures & pathways of interdisciplinary research
   This team will address crosscutting educational offering, coordinating faculty hiring with research prioritization, and integrating campus operations with research. It will also create structures for supporting and incubating new ideas; funding models (fundraising); alignment and assessment of existing structures (startup/ sunset); and integration of social sciences, diversity efforts, and the arts.
• Research leader & mentor development
  This team will create a comprehensive research leadership development program for Georgia Tech. It will leverage and build off of other GTRI and Provost office leadership initiatives, but also develop the unique materials associated with research leadership.   

The Research Next plan will leverage trends and thought leadership to prepare for changes in the research landscape, focus Georgia Tech’s efforts, and resolve grand challenges. Stay tuned for regular updates on how the project teams are evolving to meet the needs of the Institute and world.

Check out the full Research Next website.