If you're an asset manager with a big, expensive research department, you might as well use it. That seems to be the thinking behind T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW)'s latest move: launching the T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Equity Research ETF (TEMR) on Thursday.

This isn't a passive index fund that just tracks a benchmark. It's an actively managed ETF that aims to deliver long-term capital growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of emerging markets stocks. The plan is to hold between 180 and 280 stocks, and the secret sauce is the firm's proprietary fundamental research platform. Essentially, they're gathering the "best ideas" from their global equity research analysts and putting them into one fund.

Think of it as a way to get a concentrated dose of what T. Rowe Price's analysts are most excited about in the developing world, all wrapped up in an ETF.

The Research Playbook

TEMR isn't starting from scratch. It's following the same structured research playbook that T. Rowe Price uses for other ETFs in its lineup, like the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF (TSPA) and the T. Rowe Price International Equity Research ETF (TIER).

The methodology is all about active stock selection. The portfolio managers take those analyst "best ideas" from across different sectors and regions and run them through a structured portfolio construction process. The goal is to balance risk while still trying to capture the growth opportunities that make emerging markets so enticing (and sometimes so volatile). For this service, the fund carries a net expense ratio of 0.40%.

Building Out the Active ETF Roster

With the debut of TEMR, T. Rowe Price now has 32 active ETFs on its shelf—22 equity funds and 10 fixed-income strategies. This launch is clearly part of a bigger push to expand their footprint in the active ETF space.

According to Tim Coyne, the firm's global head of ETFs, the new fund gives investors exposure to growth opportunities across emerging markets through the firm's "established research-driven approach." In other words, they're selling their research capabilities as the key differentiator.

The move also seems aimed squarely at financial advisors. Kevin Collins, head of U.S. intermediaries at T. Rowe Price, said the strategy is designed to help advisors diversify client portfolios while trying to capture long-term growth in developing economies. It's another tool for their kit.

It's a significant tool, coming from a firm that manages a whopping $1.8 trillion in client assets as of late February. Roughly two-thirds of that is tied to retirement-related investments, which highlights the firm's long-standing focus on long-term portfolio growth—exactly the kind of horizon an emerging markets fund is betting on.