2026-10-27 –, LUMC02
This presentation overviews how comprehensive use of PIDS helps enable RSpace to orchestrate FAIR workflows across research infrastructures. RSpace is used to collect and manage data, and document experiments, in the active research phase of the research lifecycle. It is integrated with 20+ other research tools used in the planning, active and sharing/archiving phases of the research lifecycle. RSpace incorporates support for traditional PIDS – ORCIDS and RORS, enabling association of research outputs with individuals and organisations. Over the past two years support has been added for IGSN IDs, pidinsts and RAiDs, so persistent identification of samples, instruments and projects can be linked with individual and organisational attribution in the context of active experimental work. Moreover, we are working with developers of other categories of tools, in particular DMP tools and repositories, to ensure that association of PIDS with the research outputs is consistently maintained as data passes between tools.
Originally, PIDS – DOIs, RORs and ORDIDS – were primarily conceived of as performing a registration function, and designed around the publication workflow. Over the past several years, the advent of IGSN IDs, pidinsts and RAiDs has opened up a second area where PIDS can play a useful role, namely in experimental workflows that take place during the active phase of research. An early recognition of this second function was the creation in 2022 of the RDA Interest Group: Working with PIDS in Tools. You will be stimulated to reflect on the implications of the coming uptake of IGSN IDs, pidinsts and RAiDs into the PID universe, and use of PIDS in relation to experimental workflows and documentation.
Today, understanding of the utility of incorporating PIDS into active research workflows is entering the mainstream. For example, this distinction between the registration function and the experimental documentation function is central to the vibrant debate about what kind of PID is most appropriate for ‘facilities’, and in the US RAiD pilot, a number of research tools are among those taking part in the pilot. You will be introduced to current topics of discussion and debate around which kind of PIDS are most appropriate in different contexts and for different purposes.
This presentation will overview how comprehensive use of pids helps enable RSpace to orchestrate FAIR workflows across research infrastructures. RSpace is used to collect and manage data, and document experiments, in the active research phase of the research lifecycle. It is integrated with more than 20 other research tools used in the planning, active and sharing/archiving phases of the research lifecycle. Early on in its development, RSpace incorporated support for traditional PIDS – ORCIDS and RORS – enabling association of research outputs with individuals and their organisations.
Over the past two years support has been added for IGSN IDs, pidinsts and RAiDs. IGSN IDs can be associated with sample data in the RSpace Inventory module, pidinsts can be associated with instruments that are used in experiments documented in RSpace, and RAiDs can be associated with projects in RSpace. Combined with individual researcher attribution through ORCIDS and organizational attribution through RORS, this means that persistent identification of samples, instruments and projects for the first time can be linked with individual and organisational attribution in the context of active experimental work. You will learn about how research tools can incorporate PIDS and the benefits this brings in terms of enhanced FAIR workflows.
All development of RSpace is workflow, rather than RSpace, -specific. Our guiding principle is Vertical Interoperability – enabling streamlined passage of both data and metadata throughout the research lifecycle. To that end we are working with developers of other categories of tools, in particular DMPs and repositories, to ensure that association of the PIDS with the research outputs is consistently maintained as data passes between tools. You will learn about the important role PIDS can play in enabling interoperability between research tools.
I am CEO of Research Space, which provides RSpace, a research orchestration platform that includes an electronic lab notebook and a sample management system. I participate actively in RDM and PID community activities, e.g. as Co-Chair of the RDA Working with PIDS in Tools IG, the Research Data Architectures in Institutions IG, and the MaLDReTH Map of Tools used in the Research Lifecycle, and through active participation in the PIDS for Instruments IG and the GORC WG. I have also been active in fostering interoperability between research tools, via engagement with the 20+ tools with which RSpace integrates, and projects such as in the US NSF Vertical Interoperability Conference award, and currently as Director of the NIH Vertical Interoperability Idea Lab. I also am a member of DataCite and Dryad advisory boards.