Fighting pain is painful—both physically and economically. According to the American Academy of Pain Management, 50 million Americans live with chronic pain. It is the nation’s costliest health care problem with an annual price tag of nearly $50 billion.

These statistics suggest a need to accelerate pain management research. UT Arlington and its Collaborative Partnership offer a one-stop source for finding research to solve problems, spur innovation and pursue funding.

With one click and a keyword “pain” search, users can access dozens of faculty members with pain research credentials. Think of it as a common storefront for those in academia, industry and government agencies to join forces in pursuit of commercialization and funding opportunities—in pain or any other area.

“It gives faculty a resource to find collaborators,” says Ron Elsenbaumer, UT Arlington’s vice president for research. “If they’re pursuing a research grant, they can find out where complementary expertise is and put together a stronger proposal to win the grant.”

The project began as an effort to make all information about research and scholarly activity at UT Arlington easily accessible through the Web. Dr. Elsenbaumer and Jeremy Forsberg, director of Grant and Contract Services, wanted a database from which all information was derived.

What resulted was the ReSearch Profile System. Part content management, part information repository and part Web page builder, the system’s goal is saving time and resources. For example, faculty can update profiles in real time, upload files (publications, works, reports, syllabi) and automatically generate curriculum vitae, biographical sketches and performance evaluations.

But the ReSearch Profile System goes beyond faculty information. It also links data on research centers, facilities, equipment, technology, laboratories and research groups.

“Creating a system that was easily searchable was very important,” Elsenbaumer says. “The information is now easily accessible to the outside world.”

Accessible, indeed. Launched in May, the site received 40,000 hits the first month and more than 50,000 the second month. What’s more, search engines like Google and Yahoo directed 80 percent of those viewing the site.

The next step is to incorporate databases with funding opportunities. Soon to be launched, the Collaborative Funding Network utilizes daily downloads from grants.gov to provide one place to find collaborators and related funding opportunities. It allows experts to easily establish research teams within or outside their own institution.
 
Currently, faculty at UT Arlington, UT Pan American and the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth are members and are searchable, but Elsenbaumer encourages other institutions to participate.

“Take pain research, for example. The network would allow you to search for this type of expertise at all institutions instead of just one,” he says. “The resulting collaboration could tremendously strengthen a research proposal by giving it more depth and a broader perspective. It would help UT System institutions become more competitive.”

And help millions of Americans find relief from chronic pain.

Online: www.uta.edu/research/collaborate and www.uta.edu/ra/real

— Mark Permenter