Technology for a more transparent approach to sharing, visiting and processing data
Today’s researchers are wary about making their data publicly accessible. Their reluctance is justified, since after all that time and effort spent, sharing this data means they have no idea what happens to it or how it is used in other research. This is where RAISE(opens in new window) comes in, democratising data sharing and data spaces while transforming data sharing into a secure, controlled process. “RAISE enables moving from data sharing to data visiting, to address researchers’ concerns in open science and to support use cases where datasets cannot be openly shared, aiming to increase the datasets available for open research,” explains Evdokimos Konstantinidis, an assistant professor at the Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, which is coordinating the project.
The tech at work
RAISE’s technology allows data providers and organisations to act as hosts, keeping their datasets securely within their own infrastructure, while retaining control and ownership. Meanwhile, those who want to use the datasets do not download the data. Instead, they execute their algorithms on similar trusted environments that take care of data access. The RAISE platform records every data processing and provides a persistent Research Analysis Identifier, which Konstantinidis likens to a digital object identifier. This enables reproducibility and guarantees traceability, attribution and compliance with sensitive data regulations. In this way, RAISE guarantees recognition of research data and research work, as well as accountability for all involved parties. In the three years since its launch, the project has had a number of successes. These include the launch of the RAISE Platform(opens in new window) and a spin-off company on blockchain and AI technologies. What is more, private and public organisations beyond the project and the open science community have begun to explore RAISE services and the value they can derive from them. By the time RAISE ends in 2026, it will have created trusted environments for carrying out research. It will have made it possible for datasets that otherwise would not be shared to become available in a controlled and reproducible way, making more datasets available to the open science community. Researchers will be accredited for their work and all research data will be equally accessible for processing without violating data protection regulations. Building on the foundations of the RAISE (Research Analysis Identifier SystEm) project, the research team’s subsequent goal is to break down the barriers to research data sharing further in (https://raise-suite.eu(opens in new window)) RAISE Suite – its next EU-funded project. The project will provide tools to automate the creation of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), high-quality and valuable datasets. It will also introduce machine-actionable data management plans to streamline the entire data life cycle, from data collection to creation, sharing, access and processing. By supporting the entire data life cycle, the project will enable the seamless integration of data management practices with minimal disruption to researchers’ daily workflows. If you are interested in having your EU-funded project featured as a ‘Project of the Month’, please send us an email to editorial@cordis.europa.eu and tell us why!