Funding organization uses the regional CRIS as source for reporting research: the case of FWO and FRIS

Abstract

FWO launched a pilot where data from FRIS, the regional CRIS of Flanders, were used to capture information on the outputs of the FWO funded research projects. The pilot of this quite unique approach was implemented in a few steps: defining the scope of the pilot (peer-reviewed scientific publications only), establishing definitions of the concepts in collaboration with the research stakeholders, building golden records of projects and publications in FRIS, and developing API's to harvest the data. This method as well as the outcome of the pilot proved to be successful. The information on publications linked to FWO-projects was harvested from FRIS and used to prefill the FWO reporting template. The benefits and lessons learned of this pilot are described. Establishing definitions for the research output categories was time-consuming but necessary for obtaining more uniform and more qualitative data. The administrative burden for researchers was reduced in the sense that the information was prefilled in the reporting template. On the other hand, researchers and research institutions had to invest time and effort into the change of the reporting process. Once this process will become mainstream, the real reduction in administrative burden will become obvious. Also research institutions will benefit from the FRIS golden record service, as they will be able to harvest-information that was already provided by other research institutions. As the overall outcome of the pilot was positive, FWO has already started the next phase in which the same method is used and the scope is extended to non-peer-reviewed publications, papers in proceedings of scientific conferences, dissertations, books, book chapters, patents, datasets and other outputs. For FRIS this pilot and the next phase contribute to its ambition to become the unique and complete hub for all research information in Flanders.