Strategic partnership euroCRIS and CASRAI
November 9, 2011 euroCRIS, a not-for-profit scientific association registered in the Netherlands, and CASRAI, a not-for-profit standards organization based in Ottawa, Canada, have entered into a strategic partnership. euroCRIS is furthering the implementation and linking of Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) based on the Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) – commonly indicated with the acronym CERIF-CRIS – and promotes best practice in CRISs, spanning the field from raw experimental and simulated data through research management systems to research publications. CERIF-CRIS also plays an instrumental role in advancing the accessibility of institutional repositories. euroCRIS is custodian of CERIF, which is an EU recommendation to the member states. CASRAI, the Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information provides a forum and the mechanisms required to standardize the data that researchers, their institutions and their funders must produce, store, exchange and process throughout the life-cycle of research activity. CASRAI maintains an online dictionary and thesaurus that aims to standardize the terms in common use within the research community. CASRAI envisions research teams maintaining a single authoritative file on their activities and being able to quickly produce any documents needed by funders and institutions from this single source file. The key benefits CASRAI wants to realize for the research community are: save time for researchers (applying & reporting), improve access to quality data for institutions and funders, and simplify the measurement of research impacts on society. euroCRIS and CASRAI share as common goals the seamless interoperability of research information and data and persistent external identifiers. CASRAI sees the CERIF format (http://www.eurocris.org/index.php?page=CERIFreleases&t=1) as an international best practice for storing research information. euroCRIS sees the CASRAI dictionary (http://dictionary.casrai.org) as a key enabler of international interoperability. Both parties will endorse and promote each other’s activities and mandates, with emphasis on complementarity and non-competitiveness and will seek ways to share effort and establish projects that tangibly advance the terms of their agreement. euroCRIS President, Professor Keith G. Jeffery, said: “The strategic partnership with CASRAI underlines the importance of common semantics in metadata for interoperation of – and global access to – research information. By working together we can spread best practice internationally and contribute to a world of research not just connected physically but also connected through understanding”. CASRAI Executive Director, David Baker, said: “With their CERIF format, euroCRIS is solving a number of tough problems for organizations that need to make their research information widely available. With this strategic partnership, the CASRAI dictionary becomes an even stronger tool in removing barriers to information sharing in the research community”. For more information about euroCRIS, please e-mail: eurocris@eurocris.org For more information about CASRAI, please e-mail: info@casrai.org
Keywords
Research Information
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom