EcoCRIS: Building CRISrael as Socio-Technical Ecosystem

Abstract

Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) are increasingly understood not merely as technical systems but as socio-technical infrastructures that connect institutions, funders, policymakers, researchers, and research support units. They underpin a wide range of strategic functions, including funding decisions, collaboration, research visibility, policy development, and assessment. Deploying a CRIS at the national level presents numerous challenges, including data fragmentation, institutional diversity, lack of standardization, and the complexity of aligning multiple stakeholder interests.

This talk presents CRISrael, Israel’s national CRIS initiative, as a case study in building a national-level assessment system grounded in the concept of the Current Research Information System as an ecosystem—or EcoCRIS. CRISrael is jointly led by Israel’s nine public universities along with the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC), with technical and administrative support from the Inter-University Computation Center (IUCC). Launched in 2023, CRISrael is a national aggregated CRIS hosted on Elsevier’s Pure Community Module, integrating data from nine autonomous institutional Pure systems.