Institute for Scientific and Technical Information - TECHNIFORMI of the Georgian Technical University

The Institute for Scientific and Technical Information – TECHINFORMI was established in December 10, 1958 under the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers the Cabinet of Ministers of the Georgian SSR as a Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. Over the past 65 years, the official name and legal status of the institute has undergone several modifications. On the basis of the Government of Georgia’s decree in 2006, Institute TECHINFORMI was founded as a legal entity of public law – LEPL Institute TECHINFORMI and later, in 2010, on the basis of the Government of Georgia’s decree, was incorporated in the Georgian Technical University (GTU) as an independent research institution.

Institute for Scientific and Technical Information – TECHINFORMI represents one of the scientific organizations in Georgia, one of the core missions of which is to support sharing scientific and technical information among research communities and build knowledge - bridge between local and international science performing organizations.

The main purpose of the Institute TECHINFORMI is reflection of the scientific potential of Georgia as a whole, as well as dissemination of scientific products, formation and development of scientific and information resources, information support for science and education, analytical and scientometric services. TECHINFORMI retrieves, processes and disseminates scientific and technological information both inside and outside the country. It creates open databases describing scientific products (results of research projects, publications, technologies, experts, etc.).

As an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific information center that provides a wide variety of information services to scientists throughout the Georgia, it is an unusual symbiosis of scientific academia, organizations of government agencies, professional societies and private sector.

TECHINFORMI and the RDA 

From the outset, TECHINFORMI actively and fruitfully collaborates with different international and local organizations; since 1993 the Institute has been entrusted with representation of Georgia in different international networks and communities - FAO AGRIS, FID, GFAR, CENN, GODAN, ICSTI, etc. The Institute collaborates with a number of international organizations - UNESCO, UNIDO, DFI and has been a partner of the CIARD (Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development) initiative, which incorporates more than 30 international and national information centres throughout the world. Since 2000, under the decision of the Government, TECHINFORMI was functioning as a national information provider center of FAO AGRIS and from 2020, the Institute functioning as the an AGRIS Country Hub in Georgia.

From June to October of 2021 Institute TECHINFORMI have joined and participated in Research Data Alliance IGAD Coffee Break Webinar series organized by the RDA and disseminated via FAO AIMS knowledge sharing platform. Participation in the nine unique webinars paved the way and build the first bridge between TECHINFORMI and RDA, one of the core missions of which is supporting the global research and create more open, accessible communities to drive scientific data-driven discovery forward.

Later in 2022 Institute have joined the joint initiative of RDA and EOSC Future project, focused on Communities of Practices and implemented capacity building and knowledge-sharing activities in the South Caucasus region. The Institute is a member of various RDA working groups with a multicultural and diverse community of stakeholders, researchers and practitioners from all over the world.

Today institute strives to promote and facilitate the adoption of RDA recommendations and open science policy, enrich the dialogue and encourage researchers to share experiences at the national and regional level to improve data sharing, exchange and interoperability and to support digital preservation, and open and FAIR research data.