Institutional CRIS implementation in Europe: one goal, different strategies and speeds

Abstract

CERIF-based CRISs are nowadays very quickly spreading across universities and research centres worldwide, and specifically across European institutions. Driven by internal institutional reporting needs plus the requirements for external research assessment exercises, they have undergone a fast expansion process. Different approaches to institutional CRIS implementation do however coexist in Europe: while institutions based in Northern European countries such as the UK, Germany, Denmark or The Netherlands will very often rely on CERIF-compliant CRISs delivered by the main CRIS vendors to meet their reporting requirements, many institutions – mainly in Southern European countries – run effective CRIS platforms that do not (yet) meet the CERIF standard – since a CRIS needn’t be CERIF-compliant for becoming a useful institutional research information management platform. Most vendors offering these non CERIF-compliant platforms are nevertheless gradually evolving their data models towards CERIF, since it will ensure harmonisation and interoperability.

This presentation will provide a preliminary snapshot of the institutional CRIS implementation in Europe as an outcome of the ongoing information gathering process being carried out by the euroCRIS Best Practice/DRIS Task Group. Models based on a national/regional CRIS implementation will also be examined, together with its coexistence with institutional ones in specific countries.