Illinois Tech announced recently that Wharton Research Data Services, SSRN and Elsevier have selected Illinois Tech Stuart School of Business as the winner of the 2018 North America WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award™, honoring emerging business schools. The award is based on analytics provided by SSRN and the growth in papers and citations of papers written by Illinois Tech faculty/students.

Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), the leading data research platform and business intelligence tool for corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide is collaborating with SSRN, the world’s leading preprint server and working paper repository, and its parent company Elsevier, a global information analytics company specializing in science and health. The partnership, now in its second year, is elevating the visibility of universities and researchers conducting exceptional financial and economic research. A part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS provides global corporations, universities and regulatory agencies the thought leadership, data access and insights needed to enable impactful research.

The WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award is a key part of this collaboration, and honors business schools that advance impact-focused research. Each year, three winners are selected from across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions based on their demonstrated innovation and research excellence. Winning institutions receive a monetary prize and promotion. To learn more, go to http://www.whartonwrds.com/about/our-impact

Bob Zarazowski (WRDS) and Gregg Gordon (SSRN) presented John Bilson, dean of the Stuart School of Business, with the award on April 22 during an exclusive dinner event hosted by WRDS and SSRN.

“I am very pleased to present this WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award to John Bilson, dean of the Stuart School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology,” said Zarazowski, managing director of Wharton Research Data Services. “With this award, we are recognizing excellence, innovation and impact in business research at Illinois Institute of Technology. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.”

“We are honored accept this year’s WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award,” said Bilson. “We are committed to continuing to innovate our business programs and our faculty and students pursue this mindset in the research projects they undertake. WRDS is an important resource for our faculty in their research and in their teachings.”

Gordon, managing director of SSRN, added: “Congratulations to the Stuart School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology from everyone at SSRN and Elsevier. The Stuart School of Business deserves this award for their innovative data driven research. The award showcases research conducted on the WRDS platform and provides an important way for researchers and institutions to increase the visibility and prominence of their work.”