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News Release

2024/03/27

A Mutual Exchange of Knowledge: Advancing R&D of Japan's Open Science infrastructures and the OpenAIRE Graph
Promoting Open Science Practices: OpenAIRE and NII Join forces to advance best practices in research infrastructures

OpenAIRE (Chair: Inge Van Nieuwerburgh, Athens, Greece) and the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Director-General: Sadao Kurohashi, Tokyo, Japan) have concluded an agreement on collaboration (AoC) to advance research and development of research infrastructures, with the overall objective of promoting FAIR practices and Open Science within research communities.

OpenAIRE and NII have come together to collaborate on enhancing the interoperability and promoting of good practices for research infrastructures. The agreement aims to provide FAIRable research infrastructures to academic organisations by sharing know-how on metadata standards, aggregations, and curation of scholarly information including research data.

One of the goals of this collaboration is to increase the coverage and quality of the CiNii Research Knowledge Graph and, thereby, the OpenAIRE Graph, as they are connected. To do so, OpenAIRE will share its expertise on metadata enrichment and deduplication. NII will then be onboarded in OpenOrgs, the OpenAIRE service used to deduplicate and curate the affiliations entities, where they will act as curators for Japan Research Performing Organisations (RPOs).

Moreover, OpenAIRE and NII will work to provide training to users on responsible research assessment (RRA) and Open Science monitoring. The contents of these training sessions will be aligned with the work done in the CoARA working group Towards an Open Infrastructure for Responsible Research Assessment, and also supported by the Horizon Europe GraspOS, PathOS, and Pattern projects. With regard to Open Science monitoring and research assessment, OpenAIRE and NII will explore indicators and functions that users need to be incorporated in research infrastructures.

To promote FAIR-enabling research data management, the Data Governance Function of NII RDC and OpenAIRE's ARGOS Service for Data Management Plan, will exchange knowledge about interoperability practices regarding machine-actionable data management plans (maDMPs). This will be done through events and webinars in the context of the Open Science Trails (OS Trails), a project that aims to advance processes and instruments for Planning, Tracking, and Assessing scientific knowledge production beyond state-of-the art.

With the implementation of this strategic 3-phased plan, the collaborative efforts of OpenAIRE and NII are set to increase the impact of research outputs for institutions they serve. By fostering knowledge exchange, this partnership not only enhances transparency and collaboration in the OpenAIRE Graph and the CiNii Research Knowledge Graph but also contributes to the global advancement of Open Science. Together, OpenAIRE and NII are forging a path toward a more impactful and collaborative future for research institutions worldwide.

Quotes from Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE CEO

"This collaboration with trusted colleagues is another milestone in supporting Open Science and research integrity and advancing data-driven research on a global scale. OpenAIRE places great importance on enhancing the quality and interoperability of Scientific Knowledge Graphs worldwide. This is crucial for creating an ecosystem that promotes commitments and collaborations that ensure high standards." Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE CEO

Quotes from Kazutsuna Yamaji, Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform, NII, Center Director

"We are pleased to have concluded an AoC with OpenAIRE, which develops an outstanding research infrastructure. We will play a pioneering role in open science and data-driven research by improving the interoperability of research infrastructures and sharing good practices. Through this agreement, we will raise the NII Research Data Cloud to a higher level and contribute to implementing open science with transparency and integrity." Kazutsuna Yamaji, Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform, NII, Center Director

About OpenAIRE

OpenAIRE is a Non-Profit Partnership, established in 2018 as a legal entity, OpenAIRE AMKE, to ensure a permanent open scholarly communication infrastructure and support research in Europe and beyond. OpenAIRE is making Open Science happen. Collectively and in practical ways. Its fields of expertise and activities include services, policies and training. Operating since 2009, OpenAIRE is an integral part and a leading force behind the European Open Science Cloud developments.

About National Institute of Informatics (NII)

NII is Japan's only academic research institute dedicated to informatics, with a mission to "create future value" in the field. NII conducts both basic and practical research aimed at solving social problems in a wide range of informatics research fields. As an inter-university research institute, NII builds and operates academic information infrastructure essential for the research and educational activities of the entire academic community (including the Science Information Network) and develops services such as those that enable the provision of academic content and service platforms.