CERIF: Past, Present and Future: An Overview

Abstract

CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) provides a canonical reference data model at both data and metadata levels. As such it is a model for the development of new CRISs (Current Research Information Systems) and a template both for data exchange between CRISs and for mediating access to multiple heterogeneous distributed CRISs. CERIF originated in 1988 but was based on earlier work in several European countries. The CERIF91 standard had some defects which became apparent in use. In 1997 a working group of the EC was set up to produce CERIF2000. This is a formal datamodel and thus unambiguously implementable. The CERIF Task Group of euroCRIS is working actively on implementations, lessons learned and improvements.