ProQuest Tunes Up the Precision of Pivot™ to Make Winning University Research Grants More Efficient
ProQuest's innovative Pivot™ service, a web-based resource that identifies active sources of funding and matches them with researchers in one step, has enhanced its popular "recommender service" to make it easier for users to zero in on the best opportunities and collaborators. Now, users can apply facets such as funding type, requirements, and others that filter and sort the results list with greater precision. The enhancement is one of a variety of new features that boost the ability to win grants and awards for university-based research. Other enhancements include broadened accessibility, making Pivot 508 compliant, and a "Curate" feature that enables Pivot administrators to build custom lists of opportunities.
"Pivot enables university research offices to be more productive by simplifying the process of finding funding opportunities that match the expertise of the researchers they work with," said Jeff Baer, Vice-President, ProQuest Research Solutions. "That's an ongoing mission. Everyday we're working to enhance the technology, the content and the features of Pivot to make it more efficient. Our customers tell us these new enhancements are just what they’re looking for."
Introduced in late 2011, Pivot combines COS Funding Opportunities — the most comprehensive, global source of funding — and the acclaimed profiles in COS Scholar Universe to create a unique source for matching financial support to researchers and partners. Used by more than 350 universities around the world, Pivot provides a single online location for faculty, research administrators, managers and research development professionals to use for all funding opportunity searches, even those that rely on institution-specific data.
At the heart of Pivot's usefulness is its recommender service, which matches funding and potential collaborators. With the addition of new facets for filtering and sorting, the results list can now be more precisely matched to the university’s faculty. Likewise, potential collaborators can be honed to better fit the opportunity. Further, Pivot administrators can create lists based on custom topics that are easy to share with researchers through a permalink URL. Because they are customized by users, these "curated" lists are more targeted and complete than saved searches. Though a curated list may expand or contract, there is no need to update the link as it will take users to the most current version of the list.
Pivot is now also accessible to a broader range of users. The service has been reviewed and revised to meet the accessibility standards: Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act and Level A and AA of the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Organizations that require this level of accessibility support will find information on the new Accessibility page, which can be accessed from a link in the footer of all Pivot pages.
About Pivot
Pivot combines an editorially-maintained database of $33 billion in funding opportunities with more than three million pre-populated scholar profiles and supports it with a proprietary connector algorithm that matches funding, faculty and collaborators all in one step. In addition to the connections Pivot makes between funding and profiles, it includes tools that make the management of funding opportunities in the pre-award phase more efficient. Users can add internal deadlines to build effective timelines for seizing critical funding opportunities — especially useful for limited submissions. Funding opportunities can be tracked and organized so that highest priorities take center stage. And users can easily stay on top of the funding landscape by saving and organizing their searches, monitoring action steps, and getting weekly updates on active opportunities.
To learn more visit pivot.cos.com.
About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world's knowledge — from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information.
ProQuest's massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.
An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, and Serials Solutions® businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks®, and Pivot™ services, as well as its' Summon® web-scale discovery service. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.