Symplectic are selected as authorized service providers of Profiles Research Networking Software

Some great news from team Symplectic today, as they announce they’ve been selected as an authorized service provider for Profiles Research Networking Software (RNS). Profiles RNS is an NIH-funded, open source tool that speeds up the process of finding researchers with specific areas of expertise for collaboration and professional networking.

Created by Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, Profiles RNS automatically imports and analyzes research data to build and maintain a searchable database of individual public profiles, creating an effective social networking resource for research collaboration.

Over 30 institutions around the world already use Profiles RNS, including several Ivy League universities and large academic medical centers in the US. As an authorized service provider, Symplectic will support institutions looking to join the fastest growing research discovery network in the world but do not necessarily have the capacity to do so themselves.

Griffin Weber, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and the inventor of Profiles RNS adds:

“We made Profiles RNS freely available to encourage adoption and to benefit from a community of software developers. And,  with the benefit of Symplectic’s services, we can offer institutions commercial support services to facilitate enterprise implementations of the software.”

Using data mining algorithms and social network analysis, Profiles RNS automatically discovers connections across institutions, including collaborations and groups of researchers who have previously worked together, and those who are studying related topics or whose offices are physically close.

These connections are illustrated through interactive data visualizations, which help users understand their organizations better and form new cross-disciplinary teams. Using standards-based web APIs that communicate through Linked Open Data, Profiles RNS enables institutions to participate in multi-institution networks while feeding a variety of systems around the institution such as HR records, funding databases or repositories.

Jonathan Breeze, CEO of Symplectic says:

“We are honored to have been selected as an authorized service provider for Profiles RNS. We are passionate about collecting and structuring research data for reuse throughout an institution. Our service provision enables us to support institutions looking to effectively showcase their research to others around the world.”

Symplectic’s service provision includes installation, support, hosting and integration with other institutional systems. You can find out more at symplectic.co.uk/services/profiles-rns.