Anne AssersonCRIS seminar, Brussels, 18-19 September 2003 20030918 1 CERIF CRIS seminar, Brussels 18-19 September 2003 Anne Asserson, University of Bergen

Anne Asserson CRIS seminar , Brussels, 18-19 September 2003

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CERIFCRIS seminar, Brussels 18-19 September 2003

Anne Asserson, University of Bergen [email protected]


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What is CERIF?

• Common• European• Research• Information • Format

• A mechanism for sharing R&D information in Europe

• An EC Recommendation to EU Member States

• euroCRIS custodian since 2000


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Structure

• CERIF 91• CERIF 2000• CERIF in a nutshell• Conclusion


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CERIF91

• 1988 working group formed under EC

• After recommendation of Rectors of European Universities Conference

• Need for exchange of data on R&D• Note : similar ideas at that time

– UN/UNESCO/CODATA– OECD


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CERIF91

• Exchange of data on R&D in Europe• Simple record format

– Project was an entity withPersons, organisations, and other information represented as attributes

• Research classifications scheme recommended 1991 , not updated since 1988


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CERIF91

• Title (of Project), • Abstract (bilinguality of title and abstract will be recommended), • Address (including name of the research unit, department, institute), • Project director (definition: name of the 'holder` of the contract), • Name(s) of the principal investigator(s), • Starting date and expected ending date, • Identification items:

– free key words, – controlled terms (Research Thesaurus: optionally) (Recommended

Research Thesaurus (list of controlled terms): Annex II.) – codes of a classification scheme (Recommended Research Classification

Scheme: Annex I. - Research Classification Scheme: recommended),

• Funding directly related to the project: – funding source, – budget yearly, optionally: breakdown into personnel, functioning,

equipment,

• Personnel: number of full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers.


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CERIF91

• Not unlike modern Dublin Core– see http://www.oclc.org:5046/research/dublin_core/– Or under www.w3.org

• Suffered from same problem– Machine readable– NOT machine understandable

• Basically, insufficiently formal for logic to be applied


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CERIF91

• Problem that CRISs had a single-entry focus– Projects (national research councils)– Persons (BEST uk, COS us, ….) – Organisations (LABO fr, …..)

• Simple Record Format– Project was an Entity with Persons, Organisations and

other infomation represented as attributes

• Problems with repeating groups and relationships• Research Classification Scheme recommended

1991 not updated since 1988


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Structure



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CERIF2000

• The requirements were collected systematically– Representative of each country

nominated by the appropriate ministry / organisation in that country

– Additionally some experts who did not represent their country but were there to assist in the technological solution

– Actually, some members of this Working Group fulfilled both roles !


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CERIF2000

• cover projects , persons, organisations • entities, not more attributes• lengths & types & language, character set• repeating groups (logical)• need flexibility - relationships (conceptual)• need better data quality • need for consistent coding (semantic)• consistently implementable (no supporting

systems for CERIF91 existing)• extensible for new requirements


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CERIF 2000

• Working Group set up 1997 and coordinated by DGXIII-D4, EC

• CERIF2000 Guidelines, Final Report of the CERIF Revision Working Group, 1999

• Common format for development of new CRISs

• exchange of data from records in existing and future multiple different CRISs

• implies the need for common format for metadata describing records in existing and future multiple different CRIS


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CERIF2000

• CRIS can be implemented using subset or superset of full CERIF model:– for projects (management)– for people (expertise)– for organisations (capabilities)– for publications, patents , products (results)– for services (offerings)– for facilities, particular equipment (offerings)

• with role-based relationships


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CERIF2000

• Neutral Architecture• Data Model can be implemented:

– relational – object-oriented – information retrieval (including WWW)

• Process model can be implemented– DBMS and query; centralised or

distributed; – html web / harvesting / IR-query;– advanced knowledge-based technology


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CERIF2000

• An organisation just starting to build a CRIS

• An organisation with one or more legacy CRISs and wishing to evolve to a new single one

• Are in the market for an ‘ideal’ CRIS• CERIF provides a template


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PROJECT

ORGUNIT

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

ContactResults

PublicationResultsPatentResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

ClassificationPrize/Award

PERSON


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CERIF2000

– Extended relational model– Linking relations with attributes (roles and time

stamp)– 3 base entities Person, Organisation, Project– 12 secondary base entities (linked to base entities)– 36 Look up tables (to ensure data quality)– 39 Link tables (flexibility)– all text fields have multiple language fields

– maximum representativity with minimum complexity


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CERIF2000

• ICERIS (IS) Access to Information on Icelandic Research Projects & R&D Results

• AURIS-MM (AT) Provides access to Austrian University Research extended with multimedia

• SICRIS (SL) Access to University Research in Slovenia• HUNCRIS Access to R&D in Hungary• SRIS (GB) Scottish Research Information Systems,

public research in Scotland • CRIS-MER (EC) Research information on Migration

and ethnic Relations (planned)• Corporate model, CCLRC (UK)• METIS (NL) previously OZIS, currently used by

majority of Dutch Universities• Fdok (NO) University of Bergen, results


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CERIF2000

Metadata Model is a subset of Exchange Model is a subset of Full Model

Full Model is intersection of existing CRISs excluding uncommon variants


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Structure



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PROJECT

ORGUNIT

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

ContactResults

PublicationResultsPatentResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

ClassificationPrize/Award

PERSON


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Three Primary Entities

Concepts:(1) entities that reflect main ‘views of entry’ into CRISs(2) entities with no direct functional dependency on each other(3) entities that can refer to themselves (recursion)(4) entities linked in pairs by ‘linking relations’(5) ‘linking relations’ represent temporally-bound roles(6) ‘linking relations’ have primary key of each entity, role, date/time start, date/time end and any other constraints


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Linking Relations

As an Example: PERSON-ORGUNITConcepts:(1) May have many instances of the relationship for each instance of PERSON and ORGUNIT due to role and temporal bounding (2) Role: the purpose of the relationship e.g. employee | head | ….(3) Temporal: the use of <Start Date/Time> and <End Date/Time> defines the duration of this relationship

Analagous for PROJECT_ORGUNIT and PERSON_PROJECT

Person-Orgunit


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Primary Base Entity: ORGUNIT

Concepts:(1) ORGUNIT may have an organisationally subordinate relationship to another ORGUNIT e.g. a Group within a Department(2) ORGUNIT may have a symbiotic relationship to another ORGUNIT e.g. two Groups that have a cooperation agreement(3) ORGUNIT may have a financial relationship to another ORGUNIT e.g. customer - contractor

Orgunit-Orgunit


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Primary Base Entity: PROJECT

Concepts:(1) PROJECT may have an organisationally subordinate relationship to another PROJECT e.g. a sub-Project (2) PROJECT may have a symbiotic relationship to another PROJECT e.g. two Projects that cooperate by agreement(3) PROJECT may have a temporal relationship to another PROJECT e.g. one project follows on from another


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Primary Base Entity: PERSON

Concepts:(1) PERSON may have a socially subordinate relationship to another PERSON e.g. a child of a parent (2) PERSON may have a symbiotic relationship to another PERSON e.g. two researchers that cooperate by agreement(3) PERSON may have a temporal relationship to PERSON

e.g. a lecturer (dates) becomes a reader (dates)


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

FundingProgramme

Concepts:

(1) Funding Programme is related to (a) ORGUNIT and / or (b) PROJECT

(2) A Person is only funded via (a) ORGUNIT and / or (b) PROJECT

(3) any other entities are only funded via (a) ORGUNIT and / or (b) PROJECT

FUNDING PROGRAMMESecondary Base Entities:


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Contact

Secondary Base Entities: example: CONTACT

Concepts:(1) all contacts in one place - no replication, no update problems(2) >1 contact dependent on role e.g. private address|work address(3) the PROJECT contact is usually the project leader: a PERSON(4) the ORGUNIT contact is usually the head: a PERSON(5) but may have a generic address

e.g. project URI | Orgunit email ([email protected])Analagous for Publication, Product, Patent, Event, Prize/Award....


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Result_Publication

Secondary Base Entities: example: RESULT_PUBLICATION

Concepts:(1) temporally-bound role linking relations(2) >1 linking relation : Result_Publication and other entities(3) PERSON role may be author, co-author, editor, reviewer….(4) ORGUNIT role may be publisher, IPR or copyright owner..(5) PROJECT role may be the source of the idea


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Result_Publication

Can Express: (where DT-date/time)Person A (DT1 - DT2) (is author of) Publication XOrgunit O (DT1 - DT2) (is owner of IPR in) Publication XPerson A (DT1 - DT2) (is employee of ) Orgunit OPerson A (DT1 - DT2) (is project leader of) Project PPerson A (DT1-DT2) (is member of) Orgunit MPerson A (DT1-DT2) (is member of) Orgunit NOrgunit M (DT1-DT2) (is part of) Orgunit OOrgunit N (DT1-DT2) (is part of) Orgunit O

Secondary Base Entities: example: RESULT_PUBLICATION


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

Contact

ResultsPublication

ResultsPatent

ResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

PERSON Links

Prize/Award


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

Contact

ResultsPublication

ResultsPatent

ResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

Prize/Award

PROJECT Links


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

Contact

ResultsPublication

ResultsPatent

ResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

ORGUNIT Links

Prize/Award


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

Contact

ResultsPublication

ResultsPatent

ResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

Classification

Classification

Prize/Award


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PROJECT

ORGUNITPERSON

Skills

CV

GeneralFacility

ParticularEquipment

Contact

ResultsPublication

ResultsPatent

ResultsProduct

Service

FundingProgramme

Event

Classification

The Whole Thing

Prize/Award


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Structure



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Conclusion

• CERIF is based on a knowledge of:– Previous CRIS systems throughout

Europe and wider– The R&D in relevant information

technologies• CERIF2000 (and its subsequent

developments) is used already in systems– And new ones are starting up all the

time


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Conclusion

• CERIF as it is today– Has a long evolution– Has been improved with

• Experience of use of earlier versions• Improved technology support allowing

– More accurate representative data structuring– More expressive data management

• CERIF is an EC recommendation to EU Member States

• CERIF is managed and maintained by euroCRIS

• not-for-profit organisation• www.eurocris.org

Documents

Anne AssersonCRIS seminar, Brussels, 18-19 September 2003 20030918 1 CERIF CRIS seminar, Brussels 18-19 September 2003 Anne Asserson, University of Bergen