CRIS/RIM Data Models & Platform Ecosystem
This sub-cluster covers the systems-architecture layer of research information management: the data models that let institutional systems talk to each other, and the landscape of platforms — commercial and open source — that implement them. At the center is CERIF (the Common European Research Information Format), the data model maintained and developed by euroCRIS, the international not-for-profit organization for research information. CERIF defines entities (people, organizations, projects, publications, equipment, and more) and the relationships and time-stamped roles that connect them, along with the ontology and controlled vocabularies needed to keep those relationships consistent across institutions and countries. euroCRIS also maintains CERIF documentation, use cases, and a directory of CRIS systems worldwide, making it the reference point for how the standard is actually organized in practice. Pages in this group explain core CRIS (Current Research Information System) concepts — what a CRIS is for, how it differs from a repository or a grants-management system, and what "research information management" (RIM) means as an institutional function — alongside the practical vendor and platform landscape institutions choose from when deploying this infrastructure. Because CRIS platforms increasingly need to exchange data with research-data repositories, funder systems, and national reporting frameworks, this cluster also touches the interoperability work carried out through the Research Data Alliance's working-group structure, which brings together CRIS vendors, repository operators, and standards bodies to align data models across the research-data and research-information ecosystems. Together these pages orient someone evaluating or administering a CRIS deployment rather than just registering a single identifier.
Guides
RENACYT: Peru’s National Registry of Researchers Explained
RENACYT is CONCYTEC’s registry that classifies Peruvian researchers through the CTI Vitae platform. This guide explains the researcher categories (Investigador Distinguido, Nivel I-VII, and the legacy Carlos Monge Medrano/Maria Rostworowski categories), the Ventanilla Abierta registration process, and how RENACYT differs from CONCYTEC’s funding role.
COAR Notify: The LDN-Based Protocol for Repository and Overlay-Journal Notifications
A technical guide to the COAR Notify protocol: how it uses W3C Linked Data Notifications and ActivityStreams 2.0 to exchange structured notifications between repositories, overlay journals, and peer-review services, its notification patterns, and real-world adopters.
CvLAC: Colombia’s National Researcher CV and Identifier Platform
CvLAC is Colombia’s national, ScienTI-based researcher CV system, run by Minciencias since 2002. Learn its CvLAC/GrupLAC/InstituLAC structure, how researcher recognition works, and how it differs from ORCID.
ETIS: Estonia’s Research Information & Grant System
ETIS is Estonia’s national research information and grant-application system, operated by the Estonian Research Council (ETAg) — covering researcher CVs, publications, institution registry, and grant reporting. Not the EU emissions-trading ETIS.
VIRTA Publication Information Service: Finland’s National Research Data Hub
VIRTA Publication Information Service is Finland’s national data warehouse for scholarly publication metadata, operated by CSC on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Culture, feeding Research.fi and OpenAIRE via CERIF.
FRIS (Flanders Research Information Space): Belgium’s Regional CRIS
FRIS (Flanders Research Information Space) is the Flemish government’s regional CRIS, aggregating researcher, project, and publication data from Belgium’s Flanders universities and research institutes on the CERIF standard.
SIGEVA: CONICET’s System for Researcher CVs, Funding, and Scientific Production
SIGEVA is CONICET’s platform for managing Argentine researcher CVs, funding-call applications, and peer evaluation. How it works, who uses it, and how it fits the regional CRIS landscape.
NARCIS’s Successor: The Netherlands’ Open Research Information (ORI) Transition
NARCIS closed in July 2023; the Netherlands Research Portal took over discovery, while SURF’s separate, broader Open Research Information (ORI) program now tackles national CRIS governance.
IS VaVaI and RIV: The Czech Republic’s National R&D&I Information System
IS VaVaI is the Czech Republic’s national R&D&I information system; RIV, its results registry, is the evidentiary base for national research evaluation and funding decisions under the Research, Development and Innovation Council.
CroRIS: Croatia’s National Research Information System (and Successor to Standalone CROSBI)
CroRIS is Croatia’s national current research information system, now incorporating the country’s long-running CROSBI bibliography as one of its modules rather than as a separate site.
SICRIS: Slovenia’s National Current Research Information System
SICRIS is Slovenia’s national Current Research Information System, jointly run by IZUM and ARIS and tightly linked to COBISS. What it tracks, how it’s governed, and its role in Slovenian research evaluation and funding.
SwePub: Sweden’s National Aggregated Research-Publication Database
SwePub is Sweden’s National Library-run aggregator of publication metadata from 40+ Swedish universities and research organisations, used for bibliometrics, open-access monitoring, and institutional reporting.
POL-on: Poland’s Integrated National System of Information on Science and Higher Education
POL-on is Poland’s mandatory national registry of higher-education and science data, feeding institutional evaluation, funding, and reporting to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
IRIS: Cineca’s Current Research Information System for Italian Universities
IRIS is Cineca’s shared CRIS and institutional-repository platform used across most Italian universities. What it does, who runs it, and how it connects to VQR research evaluation.
CVN (Currículum Vitae Normalizado): Spain’s Standardized Researcher CV Format
CVN (Currículum Vitae Normalizado) is Spain’s FECYT-maintained standardized researcher CV format, used across public funding-agency applications and accreditation processes, and distinct from — but interoperable with — ORCID.
COAR Next Generation Repositories (NGR) Initiative Explained
What COAR’s Next Generation Repositories initiative is, why it launched, its 11 behaviours, and how it led to the COAR Notify protocol.
Pure and ORCID: How Auto-Import/Export Actually Works
A narrow, technical look at how Elsevier Pure actually connects to ORCID: linking and authorization, scheduled auto-export, manual import, and how to troubleshoot duplicate records or a stalled sync.
RIM/CRIS Rollout: Change Management for Faculty Adoption
A practical guide to the people side of a CRIS/RIM rollout: change-management frameworks, stakeholder communication, incentive design, self-deposit workflow friction, and the most common faculty resistance points, with fixes for each.
Elsevier Pure CRIS: Implementation and Data-Migration Checklist for Research Offices
A practical implementation checklist for research offices deploying Elsevier Pure: data mapping from legacy systems, ORCID/Scopus/HR integration points, stakeholder and change-management considerations, and typical rollout sequencing.
VIVO: The Open-Source CRIS Alternative to Pure and Symplectic Elements
VIVO is an open-source, semantic-web CRIS governed by LYRASIS. How its RDF-based architecture, community governance, and self-hosting requirements compare to Pure, Symplectic Elements, and Converis.
CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127): The Conceptual Reference Model for Cultural Heritage Data
CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127) is the event-based ontology used to integrate cultural-heritage and digital-humanities data across museums, archives, and libraries. This guide covers its structure, governance, extension family, and how it differs from CERIF and other research-information data models.
