Torsten Kahlert
Torsten works at the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) in Hannover and is a project team member of PID4NFDI, a Basic Service within Germany's National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) focused on persistent identifiers. He holds a PhD in History of Science from Humboldt University of Berlin and has worked across a range of research and research data management projects. His current work within PID4NFDI spans training material development, tool development, community outreach, and documentation, with a particular focus on supporting research communities in understanding and adopting PIDs.
Session
Do you sometimes feel like PID adoption should be easier than it actually is? You are not alone. In this session you will hear a first-hand account of what it really takes to embed persistent identifiers across a large, heterogeneous research infrastructure – Germany's National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), spanning dozens of institutions and disciplines.
PIDs are widely recognised as a key enabler for FAIR RDM. But between that recognition and actual adoption lies a significant implementation gap: administrative hurdles, domain-specific vocabularies, fragmented technical systems, and a mismatch between emerging topic hype and foundational groundwork. Not all efforts succeed, and not all stakeholders are receptive – though occasionally an intervention makes an unexpected difference.
After this session, you will recognise the most common barriers to PID adoption in complex multi-stakeholder environments, have a realistic picture of implementation timelines, and understand why frustration tolerance is a genuine project competency.