We designed our network with the researcher community in mind, and we were excited about its potential to improve collaborations, and to encourage researchers to share new findings, negative results, and their diverse perspectives.  

But we knew that for our platform to make good on its mission, we’d need to reach a critical mass of users. And the focus we had on community growth in the early years paid off: within a year, we’d grown our starting cohort of 10,000 members to over 100,000; and within three years, we’d reached the one-million mark.  

This kind of growth is exhilarating for any founder. But without the right guiding strategy, it’s unlikely to be sustainable. As our company has matured and our team has grown, we’ve experimented with new structures and business ideas, all with an eye to ensuring that our company can continue serving our members for decades to come. 

We know now that connecting the world of science doesn’t just mean putting over 20 million members in touch with each other, but rather with the entire research ecosystem. We pride ourselves on connecting researchers with their next job; on connecting scientists to new technologies and tools that can help them in the lab; and on connecting potential authors with the best journals in which to feature their work.   

This first ResearchGate Progress Report was created with these kinds of connections in mind. For our readers, we intend it to be a comprehensive introduction to our company: you’ll learn about the people who work here, the driving principles behind our work, and what we’ve achieved so far. For ourselves, we intend this report to be an annual call to action: an opportunity to take stock of what we’re doing, and to understand what we could be doing better to support researchers and drive science forward. That’s where this all started 13 years ago, and it remains at the heart of everything we do.