Last week at SURF, we submitted a number of pre-proposals for the OSNL Infrastructure call, that aim to advance the goals of ORI and strengthen the digital sovereignty of Dutch research. Together with our partners across Dutch universities, National Library and Universities of Applied Sciences, CWTS and many others, we made significant progress to work on project/interventions that are contributing to the Open Research Information (ORI) program. Among these proposals, two key initiatives—DURF (Dutch Repository Federation) and BROCCOLI (Dutch Hub for Open Research Information)—received the unanimous endorsement of all university rectors in the Netherlands, underscoring their potential to transform how research information is shared and utilized.
DURF focuses on key ambition 1 of the UNL (Dutch Universities Association) Open Science Agenda, which is to create a federated network of repositories to make diverse scholarly works openly accessible. BROCCOLI, on the other hand, targets key ambition 2, which aims to establish a central warehouse for enriched open metadata. WijsNL, led by the National Library, is related to key ambition 3, which aims to create a public platform for meaningful access to scholarly works. This agenda, approved by the rectors, outlines the following ambitions for open infrastructures:
- A federated network of repositories to make diverse scholarly works accessible.
- A central warehouse for enriched open metadata
- A public platform for meaningful access to scholarly works.
These three key ambitions—federated repositories, a central metadata warehouse, and a public platform—build on each other, making the success of each project interdependent on the others.
In addition to DURF and BROCCOLI, we also developed the MORIS proposal, which focuses on enabling open research information for the Universities of Applied Sciences. MORIS plays also an important role as an intervention to meet the ORI program goals.
These projects represent important interventions to achieve the strategic goals of ORI: 1. enhancing consistency in the research information chain, 2. improving the quality and coverage of metadata, 3. enriching and connecting diverse research outputs, and 4. increasing the visibility and reusability of Dutch research information. However, this is just the beginning—we need your help to move these ideas forward.
We are inviting additional institutions to join us as co-applicants. Your participation can help us ensure that these initiatives are truly national efforts, benefiting from the diverse perspectives and expertise of the Dutch research community. As we work to create a federated repository network and a central hub for enriched metadata, there are numerous opportunities to contribute—from governance and metadata quality improvement to supporting the development of new ways for sharing and reusing research information.
We understand that you may have questions or need more information to determine how your institution can get involved. To facilitate this, we will be hosting a Q&A session on Monday, November 25th, from 15:00 to 16:00. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the DURF, BROCCOLI & MORRIS initiatives and discuss potential collaboration opportunities with our project team.
These projects are not just about developing infrastructure—they are about creating a resilient ecosystem for open research in the Netherlands. By working together, we can ensure that Dutch research remains visible, connected, and impactful, while safeguarding our independence from proprietary systems and ensuring open, equitable access to research information for everyone.
Interested in contributing? Join us at the Q&A session or reach out directly to explore how you can be part of these transformative projects. Let's build the future of open research information, together.
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