The GTRC, then named the Industrial Development Council, was founded in 1937 to serve as a contracting agency for the State Engineering Experiment Station (EES)—which then existed by that name on the Georgia Tech campus.

[1][2] In 1946 the Council was recreated and renamed the Georgia Tech Research Institute, still primarily serving the EES under the administration of director Harry L. Baker Jr.[3][4] By 1984 Georgia Tech had reorganized the duties and scopes of both the 'contracting agency' and the State EES in response to Tech's changes in priorities over time towards contracting in research and technological development with national industries and the federal government (especially Department of Defense agencies), and with foreign governments.

[2][5][6] At that time the 'contracting agency' was assigned its modern name, the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC); and the Engineering Experiment Station, now fully integrated into the academic and research structure of Georgia Tech, succeeded to its new name, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

It is a 501(c)(3) corporation[10] and utilizes the cost principles defined in OMB Circular A-21.

GTRC owns all intellectual property that arises from research and other scholarly activity conducted by Georgia Tech, including the Georgia Tech Research Institute.