The National Education and Research Network (RNP), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and the Brazilian Institute for Information on Science and Technology (IBICT) have joined forces for actions for the creation of a national federation for research data repositories. The initiative arises from the previously existing cooperation, and the work carried out by IBICT and RNP in the context of Commitment 3 in the 4th National Plan of Action for Open Government, whose purpose was to establish scientific data governance mechanisms for the advancement of Open Science in Brazil.

"Considering the increasing demand for opening and sharing research data, motivated by the new paradigm of Open Science, we believe that universities and research institutes will inevitably deploy their own institutional repositories for research data". These locations are digital databases aimed at meeting the needs to store, organize, and provide digital objects and, in this case, of research data," explains the deputy director of P&D at RNP, Leandro Ciuffo.

In the face of this scenario, the objective of the agreement is to join efforts to build a national federation of research data repositories and, at the same time, identify and structure workflows to create Research Data Repositories. The agreement also provides for the training and knowledge transfer on informational and technological infrastructures to support the creation of research data repositories, identification of potential support, and added-value services to assist Brazilian research institutions in creating and maintaining research data repositories, with estimates of pricing and sustainability scenarios.

We want to select institutions to support them in creating their research data repositories, through training and knowledge transfer initiatives, during an incubation period of nine months. "The learning generated by this project could benefit the entire institution that wishes to create its research data repository, in particular libraries of Brazilian educational and research institutions, which will be the target of the call," commented the coordinator and researcher of IBICT, Washington Segundo.

Since 2017, RNP has had a cooperation agreement with IBICT for R&D activities and, in recent years, has been working together on activities of the 4th national plan of action (OGP). The idea now is to join forces with CNPq, which is also structuring its repository of research data. The agreement will also have advisory support from the Faculty of Librarianship and Communication of UFRGS through the GT-RDP team.

Read more:

RNP, CNPq, and IBICT publish a call for open science