GTRI was chartered in 1934 by the State of Georgia as the Engineering Experiment Station with the explicit mission to enhance economic impact in Georgia in response to the Great Depression. Over the last 87 years, we have steadfastly carried that mission with our work in agricultural technology, STEM outreach, weather, healthcare, and most recently, COVID-19 response. In 2020, GTRI represented nearly $1.4 billion of economic impact to Georgia. Our strategic plan identifies paths to be recognized as a valuable, unique enabler to the state. We will dedicate ourselves to being a partner and thought leader integral to making Georgia the East Coast’s innovation hub.

The focus of our strategy will be to constantly increase our impact to, not increase revenue from, the State of Georgia. Our national security mission work has enabled GTRI to develop a wide array of core capabilities and expertise that can be pivoted to support economic impact in the State of Georgia. Our strategy will focus on enabling that pivot.

This pivot will require GTRI to explore new areas where our capabilities and know-how can have multiple applications. For example, we can expand efforts within healthcare and our STEM outreach and begin to look at advisory roles within rural broadband access across the state. Strategic hires, independent research and development (IRAD) investments, business development outreach, and external partnerships will be key tools to enable the pivot and maximize our impact.

Key strategies:

• Establish a state government relations expert to focus on building relationships within the state and increase understanding of how GTRI can positively impact the state.
• Formulate and execute a communications strategy to increase knowledge of our capability to impact the state.
• Generate and leverage partnerships with Georgia Tech’s resident instruction to enhance the State of Georgia’s economic development.
• Enable our researchers to increase impact by focusing a subset of IRAD and business development funds on state economic impact.