CERIF

CERIF

Common European Research Information Format: an EU-recommended data model and exchange schema for research information, developed and maintained by euroCRIS, that defines core entities (Person, Project, Publication, OrgUnit, Funding, Equipment) and the relationships among them with explicit role-and-time semantics.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

CERIF originated in the 1990s as an EU initiative to make research-information systems interoperable. The model uses ‘linking entities’ to represent role-bearing, time-bounded relationships (e.g. a Person was Principal Investigator on a Project from start to end date). It separates a small core of base entities (Person, Project, etc.) from semantic-layer classifications and a result/equipment layer. CERIF-XML is the standard serialisation; OAI-PMH-based exchange of CERIF-XML is the canonical interoperability pattern. The OpenAIRE Guidelines for CRIS Managers (4.0) profile CERIF for OpenAIRE compatibility.

References

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Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="CERIF"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cerif" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "CERIF",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cerif",
  "description": "Common European Research Information Format: an EU-recommended data model and exchange schema for research information, developed and maintained by euroCRIS, that defines core entities (Person, Project, Publication, OrgUnit, Funding, Equipment) and the relationships among them with explicit role-and-time semantics.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-information-systems-and-integration/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cerif",
  "sameAs": [
    "Common European Research Information Format"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

Worked examples

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References

Use in your systems