PID4NFDI

PID4NFDI is a basic service for persistent identifiers in development for the German National Research Data Infrastructure (Nationale Forschungsdaten­infrastruktur – NFDI). PID4NFDI is part of Base4NFDI and is currently in its integration phase, the second of three service development phases.

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are central to FAIR research data management. However, different disciplines and different resources result in diverse requirements and the different NFDI consortia have different levels of maturity in PID implementation. PID4NFDI will design a work programme to build an NFDI foundation service on established PID infrastructures. As there already is a mature and globally used PID provider landscape and PID needs are highly individual in the consortia, we define our intended service as a set of several components (technical, organisational, standards, training, outreach) that are in their interaction tailored to the needs of NFDI stakeholders.

The one-year initialization phase saw analyses of the NFDI PID landscape and NFDI consortia needs; identification of necessary technical measures and metadata processes in order to improve the usability and integration of PID systems within NFDI; development of training concepts and cook books on the use and application of PIDs within the NFDI; documentation and evaluation of relevant governance, business, and licensing models of the various PID providers; and outreach and networking activities.

The goal of the two-year integration phase is to enhance PID integration within NFDI consortia, considering varying provider maturity levels and community adoption. We focus on integrating PIDs throughout the research data lifecycle, using Data Management Plans (DMPs) and Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) as pilot implementations. Special emphasis is placed on the integration of PIDs for objects for which PID registration is still emerging, such as research instruments, material samples, highly granular data, as well as projects and awards. Our goal is to boost the impact of PIDs by improving metadata quality and interoperability through technical, organisational, and strategic measures. Furthermore, governance guidelines, outreach efforts, and a modular training concept will promote PID awareness and adoption across disciplines. This approach will be prototyped collaboratively with NFDI consortia partners, ensuring broad applicability within the NFDI framework. Interoperability, metadata, governance, training/support, and community engagement components, will together form the PID Coordination Hub, which will be a central entry point for users of the PID4NFDI service portfolio.

The PID4NFDI work program is designed to build on etsablished PID infrastructures, experiences, and materials. Therefore, among other things, close cooperation between PID4NFDI and PID Network Germany is foreseen. This is ensured in particular by the fact that the partners DataCite, Helmholtz Open Science Office and TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library are represented in both projects. PID4NFDI addresses the research data management community and can take their requirements into account in more detail, than would be possible in PID Network Germany with its broad focus on a wide variety of use cases and stakeholders. PID4NFDI thus represents an important and complementary building block to PID Network Germany.