Research Institute for Scientific and Technical information – TECHINFORMI

Research Institute for Scientific and Technical information – TECHINFORMI was founded on December 10, 1958 under the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Georgian SSR as a Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. Over the past 60 years, the official name and legal status of the institute has undergone several modifications. In 1959, according to the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Georgian SSR #224, it was incorporated in the Republican House of Scientific-Technical Information and Propagation and named as the Institute of Scientific Technical Information and Propagation.

10 years later, in March 4, 1969, the Institute was transformed into the Research Institute for Scientific-Technical Information and Technical-Economic Studies and only in 1992, under the decision of the Ministry of Science and Technology, was renamed as the Georgian Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information – TECHINFORMI.

In 1993, under the Resolution of the Prime Minister of Georgia, Institute TECHINFORMI was entrusted with representation of Georgia in international organizations of scientific and technical information. 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 as an independent research institution.

The institute has extended experience in working on issues related to open science and dissemination of knowledge and scientific information at the national level. Today TECHINFORMI represents one of the scientific organizations in Georgia, one of the core missions of which is to support sharing of scientific and technical information and knowledge among all HE in Georgia. It is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research institute (one of the main components of the country’s scientific and technical information system). TECHINFORMI retrieves, processes, and disseminates scientific and technological information both inside and outside the country. It creates and maintains databases describing scientific products of the country (results of research projects, scientific publications since 2007, technologies, experts, etc.). These databases are placed on the Institute’s webpage and are visible and accessible for all interested individuals.

Databases developed at TECHINFORMI:

  • Research projects of Georgian Scientists;
  • Georgian scientific publications;
  • Publications of Georgian Scientists in top-rated foreign journals;
  • Georgian Scientists’ deposited works;
  • Georgian Experts/Scientists database;
  • Innovations and technologies;
  • Scientific organisations;

Some facts:

§  Since 2020, TECHIFNROMI has developed and implemented a database for research projects of Georgia, an online registration system;

§  Since 2016 the Institute in cooperation with the TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics plays an important role in the process of establishing the national terminology. It is an official member of the Georgian Terminology Association.

Database of national terminology of many European countries was created at the end of the last century. In 2014, on the initiative of the Institute of Linguistics, together with the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia, the TERMINTBANK of Georgia was created. Terminology Bank of Georgia collects a bibliography of terminology to describe not only terminological dictionaries, but also all articles, presentations and even information about the list of terms that are included in a particular book. The development of the Georgian TermBank is supported by the European Terminology Societies and is marked on the map of the European Terminology Bank.

§  Since 2000, the institute has been the national centre of the international food and agriculture database AGRIS, and since 2020 the AGRIS National Hub. AGRIS is the single most comprehensive open access multilingual database of the scientific literature on food and agriculture, providing open access to a rich collection of research results and technical information in the field of food and agriculture (FAO areas). The open international network of data providers unites more than 500 data providers from 150 countries. The international database includes more than 14 million bibliographic records in 90 different languages for free.  AGRIS – a portal that connects AGRIS knowledge with relevant web resources.

§ Since 2000 the Institute has been the publisher of a multidisciplinary and bilingual periodical abstracts journal describing scientific publications of Georgia (Georgian Abstracts Journal – GAJ). It is also the publisher since 2019 of the Caucasus Abstracts Journal of NanoScience and Nanotechnology (CAJNN), which covers scientific periodicals, collected works/articles of educational and research institutions, materials of conferences, dissertations, monographs, and other scientific publications abstracts of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The institute has cooperation with the following organisations and networks:

  • International Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI)
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • FAO Agricultural Research Information System (FAO/AGRIS)
  • FAO Multilingual Thesaurus AGROVOC
  • Research Data Alliance (RDA)
  • Improving Global Agricultural Data (IGAD)
  • Caucasus Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations Network (CENN)
  • Executive board member of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Georgian Open Science Cloud initiative.

Currently holds EOSC related grant:

EOSC Future Open Call grant: Expanding the IGAD CoP in the South Caucasus Region – Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

During the 2020-2022 TECHIFNROMI as an AGRIS National HUB in Georgia conducted more than 10 trainings/workshops on Open Science among the researchers, MA and PhD Students from the field of agricultural sciences.  See our profile at the: https://www.fao.org/agris/data-provider/georgian-research-institute-scientific-technical-information

Research Institute for Scientific and Technical information – TECHINFORMIGeorgia