PIDfest 26

RAiD (Research Activity ID) is a persistent identifier for research projects, linking outputs, funding, and personnel. With humble beginnings in Australia, RAiD is moving quickly into its next phase of governance and operation at global scale.

This presentation introduces the PID community to the Global RAiD Operating Alliance, a strategic partnership between the RAiD Registration Authority (Australian Research Data Commons - ARDC) and the Registration Agencies (RAs) to scale and operate RAiD internationally. Partners include SURF Netherlands, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

Members of the RAiD Operating Alliance, launched earlier in 2026, will discuss how they collaborate to guide and grow the RAiD system globally. They will detail how they work together to meet the needs of RAiD users and their plans for the future.

The Research Activity Identifier (RAiD), a PID for Projects, was originally developed in Australia; other countries are now also beginning to implement and test national and regional RAiD services concretely: Canada, the Netherlands, and the US. This panel will provide updates from these three pilots, led by SURF in the Netherlands, Lyrasis and the San Diego Supercomputer Center in the United States, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and Canadian Research Knowledge Network in Canada. Panelists will share the current status of their RAiD pilots, including an overview of stakeholders involved, prominent use cases or workflows of focus, and plans for next steps.

SURF has been providing IT support to research and academia since 1971 and has been providing PIDs since 2012. Over the last 14 years we have expanded our services across many domains, set up PID consortiums, helped draft national and international policy, helped develop PID selection and service validation tools, developed new PID services and are even hosting this conference! Let our services team take you through SURF’s journey and present what went well, what you might want to imitate, and what you definitely shouldn’t do! We want to inspire you about what an organisation can do and the impact you can have as well as pass on our wisdom to save you some time and a lot of frustration (while maybe sharing a couple of laughs)!