CRIS: Research Organisation View of the e-Infrastructure

The e-infrastructure provides interconnection of computing and data resources. Low-level middleware has been and is being developed to conceal the heterogeneity of the physical e-infrastructure and thus provide a platform for information services. The information services form the i-infrastructure, supported by the underlying e-infrastructure. A CERIF-CRIS (Common European Research Information Format – Current Research Information System) provides an end-user with access to information about the research at their organisation. Commonly the CERIF-CRIS is linked with a repository of scholarly publications holding the full text (or multimedia) and with a repository of research datasets and software. In both cases the CERIFCRIS provides both metadata and context. The CERIF-CRIS may also link to other systems at the organisation such as finance, human resources, project management and thus provide a view into those systems relevant to the needs of CRIS users. The CERIF-CRIS may be used to provide authentication and authorization of users, to control workflow of e-processes and to provide directory services. The CERIF-CRIS is thus central to providing the research information management needs of an organisation and, indeed, to exposing (subject to permissions) that information driven from the CERIF-CRIS through organizational web pages. A CERIF-CRIS performs all these functions effectively and efficiently because of the formal syntax (information structure) and semantics (meaning) of CERIF. However, the user may wish to access information on research at other organisations. CERIF provides the necessary interoperation capability. Thus the research information of other organisations (including that in the repositories and the associated organisational systems such as finance, human resources, project management) also can be accessed and used (subject to security, privacy and other rights and restrictions) together with that of the user’s organisation. CERIF-CRIS rely on the e-infrastructure. For reasons of flexibility, effectiveness and efficiency such a CRIS is best implemented using a SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). In this way the CERIFCRIS forms the universal backplane to research information – and more generally provides the core services of the i-infrastructure.