Commissioned by the VSNU, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, and the Dutch Taskforce on Responsible Management of Research Information and Data (click here for more information about the taskforce) we investigate the feasibility of a so-called Open Knowledge Base. At the moment, Dutch universities and knowledge institutions each individually keep records of the activities of their own researchers. This may involve publications (journals, books, conferences, etc.), datasets, grants, but also collaboration partners. However, the (CRIS-)systems of the various institutions are not linked, each institution consequently only has insight into its own activities and cannot see this in a broader context. For example, it is a challenge for researchers who change universities several times to construct an integrated overview of their own activities. Another example is that it is a challenge to get a (good) overview of all Dutch research activities in a given domain. The VSNU and the taskforce are investigating whether it is possible to develop a national infrastructure in which such information can be maintained and enriched, so that services can be developed that could make the above questions, among others, possible.

Dialogic is investigating the characteristics of such an infrastructure, also known as an Open Knowledge Base, and the consequences of design choices for development and maintenance costs, the quality and usability of metadata, and the positioning of the Netherlands in the international research community. To this end, we conduct interviews with those involved in national science policy, university policy, international infrastructure projects, private service developers and researchers.

Would you like to know more about this feasibility study? Please contact Max Kemman.