Launched by Executive Vice President for Research Chaouki T. Abdallah in early 2020, the Commission on Research Next (CRN) is a planning initiative that creates a new strategy for the future of the research enterprise at Georgia Tech. Faculty, researchers, staff, and students at Georgia Tech are building a cohesive plan that assesses the current research landscape and will outline a new approach to address the world’s largest challenges. The goals are to discover the issues that will define the future of research, uncover new opportunities for engagement with peers, partners, and others, and build the necessary infrastructure to make it all possible.
CRN is working in alignment with the mission, vision, values, and strategic themes from the Institute strategic plan.
More specifically, the Commission will:
- Through group meetings, seminars, and other forums, provide input and insights to the Research Next discovery and planning process.
- Conduct independent research and study to contribute to strategic analysis and discovery of current and anticipated future states.
- Contribute, through team writing and editing, to reports and documents that summarize, draw conclusions, and make recommendations about the future of research at Georgia Tech.
Phase 1 of the initiative assessed the current landscape for research-intensive universities. The CRN tapped the knowledge and expertise of Georgia Tech faculty, staff and students to analyze what the research landscape will look like ahead, for Georgia Tech and for other research-intensive universities. The report is available in its entirety on this website, and can be downloaded in PDF format.
A second team of faculty, staff and students worked on Phase 2 of the effort, which developed a strategy for how Georgia Tech’s research enterprise will – in alignment with the new institute strategic plan – respond to these challenges and move forward into the decades ahead. Eight-two members of committees developed six goals for Phase 2.
Phase 3 is now underway. Seven implementation project teams have been assembled to create strategies around the 16 goals. These projects include:
- Project management support: Large-scale projects and scaling PI operations
- Strategic & operational expansion of HBCUs & MSI research partnerships
- Research faculty engagement & career development
- All members of the research enterprise feel connected to the research mission
- Organizational structures & pathways of interdisciplinary research
- Research leader & mentor development
- Research prioritization and annual strategic analysis