In CRIS terminology, an entity representing a research undertaking — typically a project, programme, or organised research effort — with its own start and end dates, participants, funding sources, outputs, and host organisation, around which CRIS data accretes over the activity's lifetime.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
An ARC Discovery Project recorded in a CRIS, with start 2023, end 2026, named PI, CIs, RAs, funder, host institution, and accumulated outputs.
Is an instance
An H2020 collaborative project recorded as a single research activity across consortium-partner CRIS systems.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A single publication is an output, not a research activity.
Not an instance
A grant proposal that was not funded is typically tracked as an application, not as a research activity.

Editorial commentary

Research activity in a CRIS context is the closest analogue to what RAiD (Research Activity Identifier, ISO 23527) formalises with a persistent identifier. The activity is the ‘container’ for research-information records: a Project entity in CERIF, a Project record in Pure, an Activity in Elements. Activities link to People (as PIs, CIs, RAs), to Organisations (as host, partner, funder), to Outputs (as the project’s deliverables), and to other activities (as parents, children, predecessors).

References

euroCRIS, 'CERIF Data Model'.
ISO 23527:2022, 'Research activity identifier (RAiD)'.

Also known as

Project (CRIS)

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Research activity (CRIS)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-activity-cris" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-activity-cris",
  "name": "Research activity (CRIS)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-activity-cris",
  "description": "In CRIS terminology, an entity representing a research undertaking — typically a project, programme, or organised research effort — with its own start and end dates, participants, funding sources, outputs, and host organisation, around which CRIS data accretes over the activity's lifetime.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-info-systems#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-activity-cris",
  "sameAs": [
    "Project (CRIS)"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:20",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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