The consortium consists of 17 full and 3 associated partners: 12 Georgian HEIs, 5 governmental agencies and 3 EU HEIs. The majority of HEIs cover a wide range of disciplines from social sciences/humanities to hard sciences, and represent the leading public and private HEIs in Georgia. The consortium involves HEIs with specific profiles: leading medical universities, and the only national Conservatoire, thus covering all major disciplines represented on the Georgian research and education market. The consortium involves several regional HEIs with high tech-transfer potential and capacity for innovation, thus, ensuring the project is not solely focused in Tbilisi. All GEO HEIs have their own research institutes [4 out of 12] and/or research centers/units [8 HEIs]. Overall research-active people accumulated in HERD reaches 9500 scientists.  All GEO HEIs offer PhD programs [total number of enrolled eligible PhD students - 3434]. This sample represents up to 82% of Georgian research capacity.

The consortium involves 2 governmental agencies having a direct connection to R&D in Georgia: Ministry of Education and Science [MES] defining state policy for R&D and Internationalization of research; LEPL Education Management Information System(EMIS); and 3 additional governmental agencies as associate partners: National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (NCEQE) collecting overall data on academic staff, scholars and PhD students. EMIS, MES and NCEQE will set the clear template for the Georgian Research Portal Platform to provide validated open access data and serve as a filter for new applicants willing to register in the portal. Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency [GITA], an Executive Agency for Research and Innovation Council under the Prime Minister supports the development of innovative technological projects in the country and currently works on a nationwide project on creating a national center for tech-transfer support. GITA will facilitate policy dialog between intergovernmental agencies and provide consultancy for HEIs to identify and prioritize innovation potential. National Center for Intellectual Property Rights (Saqpatenti) is a governmental body that regulates patenting and licensing IPR nationally and will consult and oversee the adequacy of university R&D units for implementing better services and regulations concerning IPR.

 
Consortium also involves three EU HEIs: Technological University of Dresden [TU Dresden] that is among 10 largest HEIs in Germany and will contribute to research strategy planning/training in research management for R&D units; Université Clermont Auvergne [UCA], the research-intensive university that focuses on strengthening university-industry, public-private partnerships for achieving main societal challenges of the world; and Université Côte D'Azur (former  The University of Nice – Sophia Antipolis) which is amongst 3% of the universities worldwide in respect to research intensity and will focus on developing research strategies at Georgian HEIs and conduct the quality control of the entire project.