CERIF-CRIS / IR Task Group Putting it on the Rails Ed Simons Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands

Still in an initial state…  Relatively young Task Group  First and only meeting so far in June 2008 during the EuroCRIS Conference in Maribor.  Concrete objectives and work plan still to define.

A Mission Statement “To work out an optimal solution for the interoperability of Research Information Systems on the one hand and Institutional Repositories on the other, on a European scale”

Why is Interoperability important? From the data provider point of view: Avoidance of double and seperate input activities as well as double storage of (meta)data and in correspondence with this the risk of redundancy and incongruity of data. Optimization/harmonization of work flows (between library and research administrations). Reduction of management effort and complexity. Reduction of costs. …..

The Importance of Interoperability From the service provider point of view: Enhancement of both quantity and quality level of services through the combination of research publication metadata with research context metadata.

The Importance of Interoperability In general: Promotion of an holistic and integrated view on the research information domain, which is a basic condition for (the formulation of) an optimal research information policy of an institution. Creation (raising) of the awareness of the importance/significance and central place of research information systems in the overall information system policy of the institution.

Ground Principles for the work of the TG 1.A CRIS-centered approach: the CRIS should be taken as point of departure, given the surplus metadata on research in a CRIS compared to a repository. 2.The CERIF model and vocabulary, including CERIF-XML, should equally taken as point of departure. 3.The task group should actively promote and seek cooperation with related groups, projects and initiatives in Europe, e.g. the Knowledge Exchange Network, the DRIVER project, etc… 4.The task group should include a substantial number of representatives from the Repository Community.

First things to do (… hopefully today!) 1.Assessment of the topics the TG should deal with and the resulting activities for the near future (i.e. what will the TG (have to) do). 2.Agree upon the modus operandi of the TG and the tools to be used (i.e. how will the TG do it and by which means i.e. Wiki, mailing list, forum, etc..).

My personal list… 1.Determine and define the optimal set of metadata for a “CRIS-driven” repository. 2.Define the consequences of the previous points for the CERIF datamodel and CERIF-XML and communicate this in the form of action points to the CERIF Task Group. 3.Define a CERIF-XML based standard European interoperability format for CRIS-IR. 4.Work out technical models/proposals for optimal interoperability (integration, cooperation) of CRIS and IR. 5.Work out models/proposals for optimal organisation of workflows and management activities related to CRIS-IR.