Support offer #2: Creating EOSC compliant Persistent Identifier (PID) policies

Context

The persistent identification of research outputs is part of good research data management practice and is central to the FAIR Principles and the vision of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). There are many types of persistent identifiers (PIDs) currently being used to identify data and other kinds of research outputs but also different actors involved in the creation of outputs and the organisations that employ them or fund their work. To foster harmonisation on the use of different persistent identifiers, there is a need to define and implement research data and/or PID policies. A PID policy for the EOSC was approved in 2020 and defines a set of expectations about what persistent identifiers will be used within the context of EOSC to support a functioning environment of FAIR research as well as requirements of PID providers and the basic services they offer.

In this support action, successful applicants will carry out self-assessments with regard to PID policy readiness using the EOSC PID Policy as a guide. This will be made possible through the beta version of the FAIRCORE4EOSC Compliance Assessment Toolkit (CAT) service, which strives to encode, record, and query compliance with the EOSC PID policy and more (including TRUST, FAIR, Reproducibility, GDPR, and Licences). If you are a PID Service provider or a Data Repository Provider, this support offer is suitable for you. To enable participation across a range of PID providers, this support action will not focus on any specific PID type but rather provide general best practice guidelines on the creation and assessment of PID policies.

Successful applicants received 10 000 € to support their participation which required about 20 days of effort from participants between May-September 2024.

During this support action, participants were able to: 

  • analyse the CAT specifications and provide feedback.
  • receive guidance on creating EOSC compliant PID policies 
  • identify current barriers for implementing EOSC PID policy compliant PID solutions and collaborate on possible solutions
  • become familiar with new terms and concepts relevant for systematically organising various PID actors and services, like the “PID Stack”, and analysing the associated roles and actions.

Participants:

  • gained a deeper insight into formulating an optimal PID policy (in terms of both content and format) by reading through various successfully implemented PID policies of different scientific communities and through interactions with the offer support team and Compliance Assessment Toolkit team.
  • better understood their own organisation’s/service’s PID policy maturity level.
  • where relevant, facilitated the onboarding process of your service to the EOSC Marketplace. Please note that working towards onboarding is not a prerequisite for being successful in this support offer.  

Successful applicants to the Creating EOSC compliant PID policies support action:

  • Panayiotis Andreou, UCLan Cyprus
  • Mike Bryant, KNAW-NIOD
  • Peter Hegedus, head of services in the Tarki Social Science Data Archive
  • Evdokimos Konstantinidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • Johan Fihn Marberg, Swedish National Data ServiceAndras Micsik, HUN-REN SZTAKI
  • Vaidas Morkevicius, Kaunas University of Technology / Lithuanian Data Archive for Social Sciences and Humanities
  • Vaida Plankytė, Research Space (RSpace)
  • Janete Saldanha Bach, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
  • Magdalena Szuflita-Żurawska, Gdańsk Unversity of Technology
  • Erik Van Winkle, DeSci labs; DeSci Foundation (observer)
  • Giacomo Cannizzazaro, SURF (observer)

Support offer details

Who should apply?

PID Service Providers, PID Managers, Data Repository Providers

Skills needed to participate

Applicants should possess a good knowledge of RDM, FAIR, data policies, PIDs. Applicants should also have an understanding of technical limitations and enablers of different components of the service you run and the ability to look into technical specifications.
Virtual workshops 
  • Introductory workshop on PID policies and the CAT, including hands-on tutorials (May 23, 2024 14:00-16:00 CEST).
  • Two online peer exchange workshops where all applicants share their insights and assessment results gained through the work on analysing the CAT and PID policies
    • July 9 2024, 13-15 CEST
    • mid-September (date to be confirmed).
Support providers and mentors 
  • Natascha van Lieshout (SURF)
  • Wim Hugo, René van Horik (DANS)
  • Liisa Marjamaa-Mankinen, Lassi Lager (CSC)
  • Joy Davidson (DCC, FAIR-IMPACT)
  • René Belso (DeiC)
  • Gabriela Mejias (DataCite)
  • Sara Ramezani (SURF)
How much time will this support action require from participants? 

We anticipate that successful applicants will need to allocate 20 days to undertake this support action. The 20 days will be spent on participation in three workshops and the necessary pre-event preparation and post-event interview.

What FAIR-IMPACT will provide to enable participation?
  • 10 000 €  to support staff time for each team to participate. Funds will be paid upon successful completion of the support action. The amount provided is based on the number of days required to participate in the action using a flat daily rate and not the size of the team (i.e., 10 000 euros is the maximum award regardless of the team size). 
  • Support from FAIR-IMPACT will be available in between the workshops during regular office hours where the applicants can discuss and ask questions.
  • A reading list will be provided for all participants consisting of the EOSC PID Policy, examples of other available PID policies, as well as related guidelines and documentation

What do we expect from participants?
  • Participation in three virtual workshops
  • Self-study on different PID policies, especially the EOSC PID Policy taking place before the testing phases of the CAT 
  • Completing a self-assessment of PID policy readiness
  • Actively analysing the CAT beta version and providing feedback
  • Preparing for and actively participating in the group discussions during the virtual workshops
  • Participation in a mandatory exit interview which will result in an published Implementation Story to share real life experiences in making FAIR a reality.
  • Participation in periodic follow-up questionnaires and/or interviews to understand the impact of participation in the support action.
  • Proactively soliciting the mentors is expected. Support will be available in between the workshops during regular office hours where the applicants can discuss and ask questions. 
How many applicants will be supported?  Up to 8 individuals/teams will be supported to participate in this support action.

 

 

Supporting materials

 

Timeline for this support action

Call launch and introductory webinar

31 January 2024

Deadline for applications

31 March 2024

Selection of applicants

End of April 2024

Applicants informed of decision

Mid May 2024

Expected start date for support actions

23 May 2024

Who can apply? 

This call is open to individuals, groups or organisations from public and private research-performing organisations, including:

  • Research-performing organisations and research infrastructures;  
  • Repositories, data and metadata service providers; 
  • Representatives of national and international level initiatives. 

Applicants must reside and/or work in an EU or Associated Country for the duration of the grant. A key aim for FAIR-IMPACT is to prioritise support for organisations, groups, and/or individuals based in countries or representing domains that are currently less advanced in terms of their FAIR enabling capacity2.

The call is not open to individuals or groups based at any of the FAIR-IMPACT project partner organisations nor to individuals who hold the status of FAIR Champions under FAIR-IMPACT.