CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Quality is the Product is the Quality Information Management as a Closed-loop Process DFG Jürgen Güdler and Holger Hahnen

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008  serve as central public funding organisation for promoting academic research in Germany  foster scientific excellence through competition  advise parliaments and public authorities on questions relating to science and research  support the advancement and education of young researchers  encourage international collaboration in science and the humanities Five key goals of the DFG

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Mechanical and Industrial Engineering 6% Geosciences 6% Mathematics 3% Physics 10% Chemistry 7%Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine 2% Medicine 20% Biology 16% Social and Behavioural Sciences 6% Humanities 9% Construction Engineering and Architecture 1% Computer Science, Electrical and System Engineering 7% Material Science 3% Thermal and Process Engineering 4% Based on: DFG funding 2002 to 2004: Million Euro A Life Sciences Engineering Sciences Soc.Sc. & Humanities Natural Science DFG Funding covers all scientific disciplines Research fields: Soc.Sci.+Humanities 15% Engineering Sciences21% Natural Sciences 26% Life Sciences 38%

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 „product governed quality assurance“ – a model Quality = Usage * Frequency  the quality of data increases with the number of products for which it is used  each product adresses a specific group of users with specific interests  each group „reacts“ in a specific way to any given product  every response triggers the quality assurance process Preconditions  use of a single data source for different information products  use of a centralised and structured quality assurance process

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 „product governed quality assurance“ – a model ElektrA IRD management reports individual Letters funding ranking GEPRIS Research Explorer applicants, reviewers report users Ranking recipients GEPRIS users REx users Quality assurance team Feedback quality assurance different productsdifferent usersone data source one qa-team

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 ElektrA – the data source Facts and figures  DFG internal electronic proposal processing system  in use since 2005 (integration of data as from 1982)  used for all funding programmes  used by about 700 staff members  data source for all information products published by the DFG  contains data on (continiously growing):  500,000 proposals  150,000 people  30,000 national and international university and non university institutes

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG The Idea of the IRD  in Germany a lot of actors are involved in the organisation and funding of research at universities and non-university institutions e.g. DFG, DAAD, German Rector´s conference (HRK), Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation (AvH)  Since the late 1990‘s there is a growing need for exchanging data on an institutional base between these organisations  DFG itself was in need of a standardised institutional classification of proposals and reviewers for statistical purposes (e.g. rankings) Result  introduction of a common key for institutional affiliations as a helpful tool

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  Name  Name engl.  Short-Name  Subject ID  Subject Name  Institutional ID  Part of  Federal State  Country  Inst.-Form  Inst.-Type  Postal Information  Street  Zip Code City  Phone  Fax   Internet  Parent Institution ID Institut für Stromrichtertechnik & Elektrische Antriebe Institute for Power Electronics & Electrical Drives ISEA 7100 Elektrotechnik Fakultät für Elektro- & Informationstechnik Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany University Institut Institut für Stromrichtertechnik & Elektrische Antriebe RWTH Aachen Jägerstr. 17/ Aachen 0241/ / IRD Universities non univ. bodies 3,700 1,500 Faculties etc. Institutes Sub-Institutes etc. 7,100 7, Content of the IRD: detailed information on institutes german institutions in the IRD

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products Introduction  all examples provided are based on the IRD  each product is tailor made to meet specific needs of every single target group  each product contains additional information to those provided by the IRD  each product contributes to the „product governed quality assurance“

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products – individual letters Characteristics  letters to applicants, reviewers, and members of the Statutory Bodies of the DFG  adresses used are based on the IRD  ease of use by selecting adresses via interface  central quality assurance Contribution  active use of adresses when sending letters  about proposals per year resulting in about letters to people involved in the application process  80% of all adresses held in the IRD are used at least once a year  letters with incorrect adresses are returned and quality process is triggered

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products: University report Characteristics  database driven report  sent to DFG´s member institutions every 6 months  gives information on all funding approvals by the DFG sorted by department and institute Contribution  reflects the structure of the university  missing institutes can be detected easily by target audience  immediate feedback by the central contact person at the university

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products – DFG Funding Ranking Characteristics  most important statistical product of the DFG  published 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006  central indicator – DFG awards per institution  shows among others also thematic priorities within the EU´s Sixth Framework Programme  looks at the issue of regional cooperation within other universities Contribution  compiles data from various sources of information (primarily funding organisations)  generates concordances to cross reference between various institutional systems  figures reported are of great value to the universities for planning and control purposes  high quality data is imperative

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products – DFG Funding Ranking Networks supported by DFG-programmes: research area biology

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products – GEPRIS Characteristics  information system on DFG-funded projects (relaunch mid-2006)  main feature: integration of the IRD  different search functions  shows all funded projects at a university, department, or institute Contribution  three quality checks –  first during proposal processing  second by applicant before publishing  constant -feedback by users and applicants

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 IRD based products – Research Explorer (research-explorer.dfg.de) Characteristics  a new source of strcutured information on German research institutions  bilingual information product  joint project of DFG and DAAD  gives detailed information on more than 20,000 institutes at german universities and other research institutions  links to GEPRIS for information on funded projects Contribution  Specific on-line form which allows users to report missing institutes to the DFG in a structured manner  established workflow for handling user- generated error reports

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Quality assurance at the DFG Concept and practical use – bringing it all together  after showing the model of „products governed quality assurance“ and how the different products contribute to this model, we now have a look at the actual quality management process at the DFG The quality management process at the DFG  each product shown calls for a different quality assurance procedure  some products generate standardised feedback by using forms, others rely on feedback by  each product has a different quality assurance process  the DFG has a central unit located at the Department of Information Management  this unit carries out all quality assurance processed for all the products mentioned

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Quality assurance at the DFG Quality assurance procedure used in GEPRIS – an example

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Structure of the Presentation  Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation (DFG)  The concept of „product governed quality assurance“  The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG  IRD based products  Quality assurance at the DFG  Conclusion and pospects

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Conclusion and prospects Further use of the IRD  give access to the IRD to partners wishing to use this high quality data for own products, e.g. to perform evaluations, analyse publications and citations with respect to a specific institution Enhancement of IRD based products  looking for new external partners, who can contribute high quality data, thus increasing the information on the research profiles of institutes covered  further linking between DFG informations products, as done with GEPRIS and Research Explorer. Futher add-ons could be the Funding Ranking or adding statistical information

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 Conclusion and prospects Conclusion  although adding partners requires more work to coordinate the various datasets, each addition is an investment in the overall quality of the underlying data  the diversity of the products with different quality assurance procedures contributes to the overall quality in a way a pure information system solely used for information purposes, would be never able to Quality is the product is the quality  according to this principle all of the products benefit from the various quality assurance procedures

CRIS 2008 Conference Maribor, June 4th – 7th 2008 DFG Jürgen Güdler Holger Hahnen German Research Foundation Information Management Thank you for your attention!