As a RIA project, SciLake naturally focuses on innovation, striving to advance the current state of the art. Its main innovations are expected to be centered around the key technologies used for the creation of the Scientific Lake, the Smart Impact-driven Knowledge Discovery, and the Smart Reproducibility Assistance service.
Regarding the Scientific Lake service, the main contribution is expected to be in the field of the efficient Knowledge Graph mining and querying techniques. Notably, the AvantGraph component already incorporates innovative approaches that offer performance on par with, or superior to, state-of-the-art systems, under specific conditions. By testing scenarios within the SciLake pilot projects, the AvantGraph team aims to address cases of particular interest and develop advanced solutions that push the boundaries of the current technologies.
Regarding the Smart Impact-Driven Knowledge Discovery service, the primary contribution is expected to lie in the development of improved impact indicators for research outputs. Currently, no adequate impact indicators exist for research datasets or software hence, we aim to provide meaningful solutions for that. Additionally, we investigate variations of indicators for papers, incorporating additional factors (e.g. citation intent, topics) to offer a more nuanced impact assessment. Finally, we are experimenting on meaningful approaches to analyze and visualize the aggregated impact from various perspectives (e.g. topic, community) providing useful insights to the research community.
Regarding the Smart Reproducibility Assistance service, the main contribution is expected to be in novel indicators and badging approaches for the reproducibility of research publications.
The project is expected to also have other types of important contributions. SciLake is contributing to the landscape of open research infrastructures, offering support, components, and relevant technologies. To maximize its impact regarding that, SciLake members are actively participating in relevant initiatives, such as the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. Additionally, the project is expected to impact the development of interoperability standards for SKGs and SciLake members are heavily involved in the RDA working group creating the SKG Interoperability Framework (SKG-IF). Finally, SciLake is placed in the core of the discussion for reforming the research assessment landscape. The EC Report on Research Assessment identified that SciLake is expected to contribute with infrastructure and dedicated tools and services.