> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.ascendr.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Introducing Atlas - URL: https://blog.ascendr.ai/introducing-atlas-release01/ - Published: 2026-10-01T13:18:02.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T13:18:02.000Z - Author: Ascendr, PBC - Tags: product updates Atlas, Ascendr’s first product, was launched on 22 September, 2026\. It is a research expertise and grant intelligence platform for university research offices, connecting researchers to the records behind their work so your office can find relevant expertise and understand what people can contribute. The first release brings together expertise search, funding-opportunity matching, external collaborator assessment, institutional maps and tools for team review and outreach. Here’s what’s available in Atlas and how your research office can put it to work. --- ## 1\. Find expertise beyond familiar names: - **Institutional dashboard**: Explore a map built around your institution’s documented expertise. Browse clusters, defined areas and faculty counts, then move from a broad capability to the people whose work supports it. - **Expertise search and partnership routing**: Search in the language of a research problem or an industry or government request. Meaning-based results help you find relevant people across departments and campuses without knowing whom to ask first. - **Faculty directory**: Narrow your search by name, department, expertise area or campus. Sort by profile details, expertise Level or citation measures to organize the people you want to examine. - **Evidence-linked profiles**: Bring publications, grants, patents, courses, news and collaborations into one view, alongside identifiers and contact details. Inspect source links and dates, with ambiguous identities flagged for review. - **Expertise depth and breakdowns**: Explore a person’s estimated depth in each area through a 0-10 Level, local Rank in area and a breakdown across twelve evidence dimensions. Inspect scoring factors, weights, versions, computation dates and notes to understand the basis of the assessment. ## **2\. Turn a funding call into a team conversation:** - **Funding-opportunity browser:** Browse live federal funding calls by agency, with closing dates and award ceilings, and pick an opportunity worth a closer look. - **Call analysis**: Choose a listed opportunity, paste text or a URL, or upload a PDF or Word file. Atlas identifies the expertise the work requires, its relative importance and estimated depth, with a rationale drawn from the call. - **Contributor recommendations and gaps**: Examine potential principal investigators, co-investigators and collaborators by expertise area. For requirements outside the current map, Atlas shows the nearest internal expertise and how similar and related it is, so an adjacent capability is not mistaken for a match. - **Configured eligibility and coverage check**s: Where enabled, checks on roles, affiliations, dates, conflicts and capability coverage surface requirements that need attention before the team moves forward. - **Team selection, reports and outreach**: Select contributors for discussion, export an Excel or PDF team report and prepare an email to the selected people from Atlas. Areas still needing a contributor remain visible for follow-up. ## **3\. Understand what an external collaborator could bring:** - **Profile acquisition and review:** Begin Expertise Benchmark with a CV, biography or profile, pasted as text or uploaded as a PDF, DOCX or TXT file. Confirm identity and review the gathered records, with document-supplied information distinguished from other sources. - **Expertise comparisons**: Examine how the person’s estimated depth compares with the top and median Levels in relevant institutional areas. A separate view reveals expertise beyond the current map, helping you explore both complementary contributions and potential additions to institutional capability. - **Editable and saved assessments**: Review estimated impact labels alongside the supporting evidence, correct benchmark records and rerun the analysis. Save profiles and results for later discussions within the deployment’s access and retention arrangements. ## **4\. See institutional strengths and connections:** - **Expertise terrain**: Explore a 2D or 3D landscape by campus or cluster. Switch between faculty counts, maximum or median expertise Levels and maximum h-index to see different patterns in the institution’s documented work. - **Campuses and research relationships**: See organizational groups, single and multiple affiliations, and recorded co-author and co-investigator connections. Follow those relationships to profiles and potential introductions across institutional boundaries. - **Program review and capability briefs**: Connect program areas and learning outcomes to documented research and teaching expertise. Use Atlas results to prepare review material or partnership briefs with the supporting records attached. - **Continuity and capability planning**: Examine coverage questions raised by a retirement, proposed appointment or new research priority. Explore how a hypothetical contribution could change documented coverage, with scenario results clearly labeled as estimates. ## **5\. Keep institutional control over data and access:** - **Institutional configuration**: Atlas is designed for deployment in your institution’s cloud, alongside existing research systems. Approved sources, organizational structure and enabled checks are agreed for your deployment, with viewer and administrator roles for managing access. - **Data ownership and portability**: Your institution retains ownership of its data. Processing, retention and export arrangements are agreed in advance, including how uploaded documents are handled and how data is returned on exit. Atlas keeps supporting records visible and labels expertise assessments, team fit and scenarios as estimates. Missing evidence prompts inquiry rather than a conclusion about ability. Your institution retains the decisions; recommendations are never the sole basis for selection, hiring, funding or accreditation. --- ## **Explore Atlas in action:** Bring a funding call, partnership request or capability-planning question to a demonstration. Explore the launch features on work that matters to your institution, and examine the people, records and recommendations behind the results. [Request an Atlas demonstration](https://ascendr.ai/request-demo/?ref=blog.ascendr.ai) today. To know more on Atlas, [read the launch article](https://blog.ascendr.ai/introducing-atlas/). --- ### **Written by the Ascendr Team** *Ascendr, PBC is a Delaware public benefit corporation based in Mount Airy, Maryland. We develop decision intelligence for research, intellectual property, and technology strategy. Our public benefit mission also includes advancing education and entrepreneurship in communities worldwide.*