Abstract

A significant amount of data and information is collected and shared over the course of the research lifecycle, particularly between the IT systems of funding organisations and research institutions. The RIS Synergy project, a digitisation project in Austria’s RMA sector, aims to improve this data flow by realising the once-only-principle, meaning that data only has to be entered once and then the data is automatically redistributed into other relevant systems.
The key to optimising this process is to a) define detailed data flows and b), based on these data flows, develop and implement technical data interfaces. The exchanged metadata contains information about projects, funding calls and publications. It is standardised in compliance with international models such as the Common European Research Information Format (CERIF). Analysing the data flows proved essential for the development of a meta process depicting a research project’s full workflow. Based on this, the project team were then able to formulate the uses cases that will be realised in RIS Synergy:
Distribute, retrieve and provide programme and call data via funding organisations
- Provide and retrieve project proposal data via funding organisations
- Provide and retrieve project metadata via funding organisations
- Provide and retrieve project output with DOI via research institutions
- Provide and retrieve authentication data of the research institution
- Provide and retrieve the organisational chart of the research institution
The fact that RIS Synergy is a bottom-up initiative involving, as of today, 18 partner institutions across the Austrian research sector - HEI institutions and funding organisations alike - is arguably one of the project’s most evident benefits. It affords research administrators the unparalleled opportunity to pool diverse perspectives and skill sets in order to optimise research management processes. The creation of these data flows is both a testament to this collaborative effort, and one of its most rewarding takeaways. Building shared services and tools creates synergies for Austrian research institutions and funding agencies, thus contributing to a more sustainable research infrastructure.
It is projects such as RIS Synergy that aim to keep this momentum going and transform it into sustainable tools and strategies for research support and management. This poster illustrates in detail the data flows of the use cases that are realised in RIS Synergy vis-à-vis the entire research life cycle, and that aim to lay the foundation for this undertaking.