RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012

www.PosterPresentations.com

Innovative interdisciplinary and multi-institutional

portals to stimulate networking and collaboration across

institutional and national boundaries

Research networking is facilitated through web-based expertise profiling

systems—research networking tools (RN tools)—that aggregate research

and scholarly information about faculty members and investigators to

enable the rapid discovery and recommendation of experts to address new

or existing research challenges and to facilitate new interdisciplinary

collaborations. While most RN tool implementations focus on harvesting

and displaying expertise from a single institution and across traditional

academic organizational structures, this session will examine the flexibility

of Elsevier’s Experts Portal to deliver innovative multi-institutional, cross-

sector, and international semantic expertise portals in partnership with

universities and other research institutions. These multi-institutional

expertise portals are a key to stimulating networking and collaboration

across typical research silos.

INTRODUCTION

Facilitate collaborations by exposing scholarly & research connections and

make researchers' accomplishments readily discoverable

EXPERTISE PROFILING & RESEARCH NETWORKING

Northwestern Scholars (Northwestern University): First to implement a university-wide research networking tool, profiling faculty researchers

across all of its schools, not just those in the STEM fields. Organized their researchers by research centers/institutes and graduate programs,

as well as academic depts, to foster expertise discovery across institutional boundaries and promote broad interdisciplinary and collaborative

research.

Chicago Collaboration for Women in STEM (Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, DOE Fermi Labs, DOE Argonne Nat’l Lab): The

first instance of an RN tool focused on making discoverable members of an underrepresented minority group across regional academic and

national laboratory institutions.

Int’l Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI; global research consortium of universities, government labs, and industry): United around the goal of

developing and commercializing a liquid solar fuel. The portal connect s researchers internationally across a single initiative and demonstrate

a research institute’s collective expertise. Similarly, the Experts portal at MD Anderson Cancer Center includes profiles of cancer researchers

from all of its sister institutions around the globe.

REACH NC (NC higher ed & research institutions): A statewide portal that enables users to search, browse and find thousands of experts and

assets within North Carolina. REACH NC's expert profiles can assist people in industry, community groups and university personnel in efforts to

find information and potential collaborators for research and problem-solving.

Arizona University System’s Research Catalog (AZ Board of Regents, ASU, NAU, U of AZ): An instance of Elsevier’s SciVal Experts that allows

you to search for experts by navigating the by concept or last name, or by free text inputs such as articles or funding opportunity

announcements.

Michigan Corporate Relations Network (MCRN) Expertise Portal (Five public research universities in the state ): A statewide university

research network specifically designed to connect corporations and SME’s to relevant university-based researcher expertise and core facilities

to promote innovative cross-sector research and grow Michigan's economy. The portal aims to build on findings that university-industry

publications are generally of higher impact and university-industry patents are more likely to be successfully brought to market and drive

revenues.

Like all public Experts portals, these sites are connected via multiple, cross-institutional federated searches (SciVal Community,

Direct2Experts, and CTSAsearch), offering the ability to expand the search for experts and collaborations even more broadly. And the

Northwestern Scholars and Women in STEM implementations broadcast data in their profiles openly in RDF triplestore, VIVO-compatible

format, which can be accessed freely through any SPARQL endpoint. This provides analysts and developers access to the rich profile

information, enabling sophisticated collaboration and networking studies.

MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL PORTALS CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, these multi-institutional

research networking portals built on

Elsevier’s Experts platform serve as

models for research organizations to

extend expertise discovery and

networks beyond their institutional

boundaries to promote collaborative

interdisciplinary and global research.

REFERENCES

• Schleyer, T., Spallek, H., Butler, B.S., Subramanian, S., Weiss, D., Poythress, M.L.,

Rattanathikun, P., and Mueller, G. (2008). Facebook for Scientists: Requirements and

Services for Optimizing How Scientific Collaborations Are Established. J. Med. Internet Res.

10.

• Schleyer, T., Butler, B.S., Song, M., and Spallek, H. (2012). Conceptualizing and advancing

research networking systems. ACM Trans. Comput. Interact. 19, 1–26.

• Bhavnani, S.K., Warden, M., Zheng, K., Hill, M., Athey, B.D., SK, B., and BD, A. (2012).

Researchers’ needs for resource discovery and collaboration tools: a qualitative

investigation of translational scientists. J Med Internet Res 14, e75.

• Boland, M.R., Trembowelski, S., Bakken, S., and Weng, C. (2012). An Initial Log Analysis of

Usage Patterns on a Research Networking System. Clin Transl Sci no–no.

• Contractor, N.S., and Monge, P.R. (2002). Managing Knowledge Networks. Manag. Commun.

Q. 16, 249–258.

• Eichmann, D. (2012). Semantic Commonalities of Research Networking and PIM. Work. Pers.

Inf. Manag. - PIM 2012, Conjunction with CSCW 2012.

• Falk-Krzesinski, H., Shaw, P.L., Wimbiscus-Yoon, L., and Consortium, V. (2010).

Comparative Matrix of Research Networking Tools. Natl. VIVO Conf. Enabling Natl. Netw.

Sci.

• Kahlon, M., Yuan, L., Daigre, J., Meeks, E., Nelson, K., Piontkowski, C., Reuter, K., Sak, R.,

Turner, B., Weber, M.G., et al. (2014). The Use and Significance of a Research Networking

System. J Med Internet Res 16, e46.

• Mangan, K. (2012). Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Doubts. Chron.

High. Educ. April 29, .

• Stewart, D.L. (2010). Knowing What Your Know: Expertise Discovery & Management - Part 1.

Connect. Knowl.

• Weber, G.M., Barnett, W., Conlon, M., Eichmann, D., Kibbe, W., Falk-Krzesinski, H., Halaas,

M., Johnson, L., Meeks, E., Mitchell, D., et al. (2011). Direct2Experts: a pilot national

network to demonstrate interoperability among research-networking platforms. J. Am. Med.

Informatics Assoc.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Elsevier Research Intelligence Portfolio

Pure Experts Portal: http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/research-

intelligence/products-and-services/pure/expertsportal

Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski, PhD

Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations

h.falk-krzesinski@elsevier.com

Mobile +1 847-848-2953

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyfk

Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski1,2, Daniel Calto1, and Jeff Horon1

1Elsevier, New York, NY; 2Northwesten University, Chicago, IL

Research Networking to Enhance Multi-institutional Expertise Discovery and Collaboration

Expertise DiscoveryCRIS

Semantic Search

2012VIVO-Compliant Experts

Instance Launched

22 CTSA Institutions w/ Experts

(36%)

# of instances worldwide

160+

>160,000Expert Profiles

Connectivity w/ more than 175 Institutions around the globe

Countries connected

through Portals

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