Georgia Institute of Technology
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

AC 9: Methodology/Assumptions:
• Faculty and staff listed in the Institute’s system of record for grants and contracts as working on a research project were identified as “researchers”.
• All proposals for the prior three fiscal years were queried against the list of keywords used in the academic course inventory.
• Using the Institute’s web sites, all faculty identified as part of active sustainability research, centers, and other internal entities were inventoried (with citation of sources).
• The grants and contracts database and other relevant databases was queried for all contracts granted with those researchers as principal (or co-) investigator.
• Each retrieved contract was reviewed by keyword, title, department, and sponsor for inclusion.
- A UN SDG was identified per contract based on relevant keywords and title description.
• Additional project team members were identified for each sustainability-related contract based on project billing records.
- Researcher counts and department counts are UNIQUE counts, while the inventory lists any sustainability project by a researcher, so includes multiples of researcher and department.

“Academic Units” definition: Research and Courses
Teams of faculty, students, and researchers throughout our six colleges, 11 interdisciplinary research institutes, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), and hundreds of research labs and centers are pushing the boundaries of science and technology every day. More than half of Georgia Tech’s research is done in GTRI, Georgia Tech’s applied research organization. GTRI has grown to more than 2,400 employees supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country, and performs more than $600 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. In addition to GTRI, schools, research labs and centers, Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary research institutes, bring together research to address specific challenges. With staff knowledgeable about broad research areas, these institutes provide single points of contact for organizations conducting research at Georgia Tech.

As it relates to the STARS report, Georgia Tech’s research units include the “academic units” (those that teach courses) used for the courses inventory as well as the expansive research centers, IRIs, and GTRI units that conduct research. These centers do not perform instruction, only research, yet provide an academic research function. To include the vast research portfolio of the research units, Georgia Tech is expanding the total departments related to research. Otherwise, including the research conducted by the “academic units” consistent with courses (IPEDS-based instructional units) leaves out the majority of the research conducted at Georgia Tech.