November 17, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET
Turning open data into actionable research intelligence.
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In a recent webinar hosted by Atom Grants, independent consultant and senior research fellow Jorge Gomez Magenti shared groundbreaking insights into how open data and generative AI are transforming research strategy and operations. Drawing from his experience working with research funders and organizations across Europe, Jorge demonstrated practical approaches to addressing long-standing challenges in the research ecosystem.
Jorge began by identifying a critical gap in research administration: many strategic funding decisions lack robust external evidence. Organizations face several systemic challenges:
The result? Organizations often make crucial decisions based on incomplete information or gut feeling rather than comprehensive data analysis.
Jorge's approach centers on two complementary strategies:
Rather than relying on expensive proprietary platforms, Jorge demonstrated how to build powerful analytical capabilities using freely available data sources:
Jorge even created and shared a dataset of nearly two million research projects, which was so well-received that it validated the Wellcome Trust's decision to invest almost three million pounds in similar work at scale through Open Alex.
Large language models transform how we process research information:
Jorge showcased several real-world use cases that demonstrate the power of these approaches:
In dementia research, Jorge's analysis revealed that some subfields had 76% UK leadership while others showed only 17%, indicating infrastructure gaps in specific diagnostic techniques. Industry participation varied from 4% to 21% across different areas, providing clear signals for strategic investment.
Traditional approaches to finding collaborators or interview candidates could take weeks. Jorge's automated pipeline can process 130,000 publications, shortlist 3,000 relevant authors, and produce detailed profiles of 300 highly relevant researchers in less than a day. These profiles include:
By monitoring researchers through unique identifiers, organizations can automatically track career trajectories including international collaborations, industry partnerships, and subsequent funding success. This enables fellowship programs to demonstrate their long-term impact on researcher careers.
Vector embeddings enable semantic matching between grant applications and potential reviewers' work, dramatically streamlining the reviewer identification process. The same technology applies to finding collaborators, faculty candidates, or advisory board members.
Organizations no longer need expensive subscriptions to platforms like Clarivate or Dimensions. Jorge demonstrated how to build customized bibliometric dashboards using open data, automatically refreshed with the specific metrics each organization cares about.
One particularly innovative approach Jorge shared involves plotting research in "semantic space." By mapping where different organizations' publications fall based on their meaning rather than just keywords, he can:
Despite concerns about AI and automation, Jorge expressed optimism about the future of research administration. The technologies he demonstrated were largely impossible just two years ago, and capabilities continue to improve rapidly. Rather than replacing human judgment, these tools augment decision-making by:
Open data provides a cost-effective alternative to expensive proprietary platforms, requiring only time investment in aggregation and harmonization
AI enables analysis at unprecedented scale, processing thousands of documents in hours rather than weeks
Quality and customization matter more than raw capability when choosing analytical approaches or vendors
Bias awareness is critical when using AI, requiring careful instruction design and responsible use of bibliometrics
The field is evolving rapidly, with capabilities improving every six to nine months
Jorge encouraged organizations to continuously ask themselves:
The webinar demonstrated that sophisticated research intelligence is no longer the exclusive domain of large, well-funded organizations. With open data and AI tools, institutions of all sizes can build powerful analytical capabilities to make more informed strategic decisions.
For organizations looking to explore these approaches, whether through custom solutions or platforms like Atom Grants, the message is clear: the tools exist today to transform research strategy and operations. The question is not whether to adopt them, but how quickly.