equipment.data – Delivering a data autodiscovery infrastructure

Abstract

The development of the National Research Equipment Portal, equipment.data, was funded by EPSRC (Jisc from April 2015) in response to the need to improve visibility and utilisation of UK research equipment. The aim of equipment.data was to deliver a sustainable solution for the aggregation and displaying of published research equipment data from across UK HE in order to promote greater conversation around the utilisation of existing research infrastructure. Its development has the backing of RCUK as its preferred medium for national equipment data sharing with the service now endorsed as strategically significant by HEFCE.