Overview Faculty Role Project Phases FRIP Top Terms Contact FRIP OVERVIEW The size and diversity of the University of Pittsburgh schools of health sciences makes it difficult to keep track of faculty research activities through traditional and informal channels. At the same time, major features of the research environment, such as the increasing importance of multidisciplinary research, make it more important than ever for an institution to have this information available. The goal of FRIP is to create a searchable index of terms describing the current research interests of faculty at the University of Pittsburgh's six schools of health sciences and the Health Sciences Library System. HOW IT WORKS The FRIP application automatically generates a unique, personalized, password-protected Web site for each faculty member, showing lists of the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) terms associated with that person's recent MEDLINE-indexed publications. The faculty member selects appropriate terms from the lists and can add other terms as needed to create a complete snapshot of his or her research interests. The personalized FRIP Web site can be revisited and research interests data revised at any time. The aggregate result, for all faculty, is a searchable index of research interests terms. To keep the index current, faculty are reminded via e-mail to review their terms annually. USES The Faculty Research Interests Project is helping Pitt health sciences faculty, administrators, students, and trainees meet a variety of information needs: Identifies local researchers doing related work outside one's own department, school, or discipline Enhances visibility of research activities to local, national, and international colleagues Assists chairs and deans in development of research initiatives and collaborations Enhances visibility of research activities to prospective Pitt faculty and those responsible for their recruitment Enhances visibility of research activities to students, postdocs, and trainees seeking laboratories to join Enhances visibility of research activities to applicants to the health sciences schools who are interested in research and academic careers Provides a resource for departments that have mentoring initiatives for students, trainees, or junior faculty Enhances department and division Web sites that incorporate FRIP data in their faculty information pages

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