New ISO Standard Published for the Research Activity Identifier (RAiD)

After almost 4 years of effort, the ISO standard for the ARDC’s Research Activity Identifier (RAiD) has been published.

RAiD is a persistent identifier for research projects and activities. It is one of the identifier services owned and offered by the ARDC. RAiD connects existing persistent identifiers for researchers, institutions, outputs and tools with key project information to create a timeline of research projects.

The new international standard provides a high-level definition of the RAiD system and its governance.

The ARDC drove the process to draft the ISO standard and respond to community consultation. 

Professor Shawn Ross, Product Manager for RAiD at the ARDC, said, “We’re thrilled to see the ISO standard for RAiD published, paving the way for an internationally recognised system for tracking research projects and their impact, one that can be incorporated into research management systems or used directly by researchers globally. We look forward to working in Australia and internationally to see institutions and researchers begin using this important new persistent identifier for research.

“Thank you to the ARDC’s Siobhann McCafferty, who led the ISO Working Group that created the Standard.”

Clifford Tatum, RAiD Advisory Group member and Consultant with SURF, which is the collaborative organisation for IT in Dutch education and research in The Netherlands, said, “RAiD is a timely contribution for deployment of Responsible Research Assessment initiatives, that aim to expand the diversity and fidelity of data used in research assessment. At SURF in The Netherlands, we’re thrilled to be working together with the ARDC on the implementation of RAiD in the European context. 

“In an important European project focussing on the development and realisation of core components for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) called FAIRCORE4EOSC, RAiD will be introduced early in project formulation, enabling systematic management of project information about participants, inputs and outcomes, while also facilitating project reporting and research assessment. 

“RAiD will enable the impact of research projects to be tracked in a standard way internationally. Approval of the ISO standard advances this vital contribution and establishes RAiD as a global solution.”

A Powerful Identifier for Research Managers

Researchers and research institutions that utilise RAiD will have a single source of truth for information about a project.

RAiDs link project information (metadata), contributors, organisations, inputs and outputs with important project metadata found nowhere else. They allow users to: 

• report and evaluate project outcomes and impact 
• save time on administration and reporting, through the reducing double-entry of data and ready access to project information 
• provide better tools for analysis and decision support
• produce and expose a project’s history, improving transparency and facilitating the understanding and reuse of project outputs like datasets.

RAiD is owned and operated by the ARDC, which the new ISO standard designates as the global RAiD Registration Authority. The Registration Authority established the policies for the RAiD system and is empowered to set up Registration Agencies around the globe to provide RAiD minting services.

With the ISO standard now published, the ARDC has become a member of the ISO Chair’s Advisory Group and a liaison member of the ISO Technical Committee for Identification and Description (TC 46/SC 9). 

In the coming months, the ARDC will be continuing software development for RAiD, which will lead to the deployment of a model RAiD service for Australasia, operated by the ARDC in its role as a Registration Agency for the region. We are also making plans with other potential international Registration Agencies to adapt and redeploy this software. 

In parallel, the ARDC is elaborating on the ISO standard, producing policies and procedures that will govern the global RAiD system and the RAiD services offered by Registration Agencies.

Members of the RAiD Advisory Group come from organisations across the globe, including DataCite, Digital Research Alliance of Canada, CrossRef, ORCID, Research Organization Registry (ROR), National Information Standards Organization (NISO), Jisc UK, MoreBrains Cooperative, SURF, American Geophysical Union (AGU), Australian Access Federation (AAF), the ARDC and The University of Auckland.

Speak to the ARDC about becoming a Registration Agency for RAiD, or incorporating RAiD into your research management systems or workflows – contact us.

The ARDC is funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers.