1. An Information System about Research Units
GRAAL,
An Information System about Research Units
Jean-François Desnos, Geneviève Gras, Béatrice Meier, Laurent Pilet
Université Joseph Fourier, Université de Strasbourg, Clermont Université

2. The aims of GRAAL
GRAAL is an application system designed to manage the french universities research labs
A reference for the administration of research
A tool for the laboratories (means, activities)
A communication vector with the government and national bodies
A datamart providing indicators to the president

3. The project
The GRAAL project is a cooperation which started in 2004 between the Universities of
Grenoble,
Clermont-Ferrand,
Strasbourg,
Lille USTL,
Nancy Henri Poincaré,
Paris Descartes.
It’s presently distributed by AMUE and used by 44 universities in France.

4. The project organization
Steering Committee: in charge of the strategy ; the presidents and directors of national bodies
Project committee: executes the strategic plan, allows the means, follows the planning of the project
Functional and operational teams: design and run the application.

5. Functionalities of the application
Describes the structure of research : labs, clusters, teams,…
Information on people and their scientific activities, including international
Follow-up of the financial means
One database for one or several universities
The following example shows the complexity of the structures

6. Structure of research (example)
Université
Joseph Fourier
(university)
INP Grenoble
(university)
CNRS
(national research body)
INRIA
(national research body)
Physics & Maths Dept
IT Department
Federation IMAG
Laboratory GRAVIR
GRAphics, VIsion and Robotics
7 others laboratoires
IT doctoral school
Team Motion and Animation
Engineering doctoral school
Team
Virtual Reality
Team
Computer Vision

7. Integration in the university IS
Students
Reference Data Bases
Human
Resources
Web services
GRAAL
University
Data
warehouse
User
Connection
Authentification
Portal of University
(E-sup portail)
CAS
LDAP directory

8. One database for several universities
Human
Resources
Students
Data
warehouse
GRAAL
University …
Human
Resources
Students
Data
warehouse
ENT
(E-sup)
University B
Web services
CAS
ldap
directory
Students
Human
Resources
Data
warehouse
University A

9. Indicators
General information : type of research unit, associate universities, scientific labels, address, …
Personal : Researchers, Professors, Visiting scholars, PhD students, PostDoc, staff
Finance : Needs, Means / team
Scientific production : articles, events, contracts, patents, associated private companies

10. Exchanges
with the directory of research on institutional website or laboratory’s website (by Web services)
With the ministry : XML files tranfers for SIREDO statistics
With national open archiv systems HAL (by Web services)

11. Technology Full web: Java Oracle 9i et 10g databases
Development : WebObjects Framework , Eclipse IDE (WOLips plugins)
Deployment : WebObjects / Tomcat
Oracle 9i et 10g databases
Integrated in the university IS
In the digital work environment (fr. ENT)
CAS, LDAP directory authentication
Synchronous access to reference databases : Student system, HR

12. Exchanges between GRAAL and open archive system HAL
Publications
by laboratory
harvesting
read
read
validation
Publications
by laboratory
and author
submit
write
write

13. Perspectives for new versions
Structures: adapt to new research structures
In France, a number of universities are merging in PRES (“Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur”)
“Teams”, subdivisions of a laboratory, are getting attributes of a laboratory.
Exchanges
With open archives projects (by Web services)
With a national research skills database (by XML files transfers)
Upgrade of the reporting capacities (with Business Objects)
Technology: rewrite the software? Cooperate with CNRS? Access other Databases? (than Oracle)