FRIS R3 - CERIF XML in Large Scale Exchange of Research Information

The ambition of FRIS R3 is to take responsibility for a broader regional research information infrastructure that enables the participating Flemish research institutions, and other service users like funders and assessment entities, to uniquely identify and reuse meta-data on “research entities” - as well as showcasing Flemish Research. Relevant research entities in this context are researchers, organisations, projects, research output, but also include other research related aspects. In this paper we present the motivation, development processes, technical architecture and implementation behind the new Flemish infrastructure for research information called FRIS R3. FRIS R3 also serves as an example of a real world implementation of CERIF XML that uncovers challenges that must be addressed, if CERIF XML is intended to stay relevant in commercial and large scale contexts.