Elevating K-State impact

Kansas State University continues to advance the Forging Opportunities for Research, Growth and Entrepreneurship, or FORGE, program grant with Wildcat Scholar — the academic, research and engagement management system designed to showcase and connect K-State's scholarly achievements.

Wildcat Scholar, developed in partnership with Digital Science, integrates data from internal and external sources to create dynamic faculty profiles and strengthen collaboration across the university.

Symplectic Elements, one of Wildcat Scholar's core components, is now live. The information management system and Dimensions, launched by K-State earlier this year, are both Digital Science solutions.

While Dimensions focuses on global research, Symplectic Elements provides a single home for K-State-specific scholarship, enabling faculty and staff to share their work and impact with ease. Centralizing all land-grant work at K-State into a single, interconnected platform for sharing and reporting, Symplectic Elements will serve as the backbone of Wildcat Scholar.

Telling K-State's impact story

Building trust with communities starts with an understanding of what K-State provides — and who is impacted. When this answer is spread across multiple places, such as CVs, resumes, departmental websites or grant systems, it is difficult to see the full scope of K-State's impact.

Wildcat Scholar brings those pieces together, automatically pulling information from systems and databases already in use — such as Cayuse, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions — and organizing it into a single location.

Faculty and staff across all colleges and units can also document their work on individual profiles in Symplectic Elements, providing them with an easily visible, professional home to share their impact.

When Kansans can clearly see how K-State’s work connects to real-world challenges, it builds trust. This system helps us show, not just claim, our impact. By investing in long-term research infrastructure, K-State continues to align with our next-gen vision and the FORGE grant program from the Kansas Department of Commerce.

A personalized approach

Wildcat Scholar builds individualized, dynamic profiles that automatically include many publications and grants, with simple, AI-assisted tools for adding teaching and service. Beginning in June, these profiles will be publicly searchable, making it easier for collaborators, students, investors, industry partners and Kansans to find and understand the work being done at K-State.

When expertise from across the university is captured in a single system, it also makes it easier for faculty and staff to find colleagues working in related or complementary areas, whether to form a grant team or explore something new.

By updating profiles now for accuracy, users can ensure their work is represented accurately — helping Kansans, partners and collaborators see the full impact of K-State's accomplishments. To get started, visit the Wildcat Scholar webpage or contact the team at wildcatscholar@k-state.edu. The site includes responses to common questions, a way to report technical issues, requests for department presentations, training materials and scheduled Zoom support sessions.

Wildcat Scholar helps K-State tell a clearer, more connected story about teaching, research and engagement, strengthening both the visibility and impact of our work.

— Submitted by Wildcat Scholar Implementation Task Force