ERGO: European Research Gateways Online and CERIF: Computerised
Exchange of Research Information Format
by Keith G Jeffery
The ERGO (European Research Gateway Online) Project is providing
a one-stop-shop, Web-based access to R&D information in Europe.
Users can find new technologies, contact experts / consultants
or overview quality and quantity of R&D support by region, country
or subject area. Simply, ERGO provides a standardised catalogue
(like a library card catalogue) with an entry for each R&D project
in all European countries. The Catalogue is based on the CERIF
standard. In the current pilot project only the catalogue is provided,
hosted on the EC CORDIS system, and the data concerns only R&D
Projects. After evaluation, the aim is to provide - from a catalogue
replicated in each region or member state - automated access to
the detailed relevant records in host databases in all European
countries. CERIF (Computerised Exchange of research Information
Format) is a 10-year-old standard (technically, a ‘recommen-dation
to member states’) that is being updated. The CERIF working group
are defining an ‘ideal data model’ for R&D information and within
this defining both an exchange format (what is passed between
heterogeneous R&D Information Systems) and a Catalogue Format
(what is passed to the ERGO Catalogue as metadata to provide a
harmonised overview of available information).
Innovators in SMEs and larger industries, researchers looking
for complementary partners for a R&D effort, multipliers assisting
technology transfer and policy makers or watchers in government
and elsewhere following trends and making policy all need information
on all R&D in Europe (and ideally worldwide). In all European
Countries the Research Councils and others fund a considerable
amount of R&D, much of which has or could have commercial relevance.
Access to all this information from one easy-to-use WWW interface
is clearly desirable for innovation and wealth-creation.
The ERGO Framework
The ERGO architecture and development specification was produced
by a Working Group of nominated experts from the member states
and associated countries under the aegis of the Innovation Programme
of Framework IV managed by DGXIII. An architecture to overcome
the distributed heterogeneity of the legacy and developing research
information systems based on a common catalogue has been defined
(largely by the authors although based on the earlier EXIRPTS
project involving UK, Italy and France). Unfortunately this development
could not be funded by the EC now, although the plan was approved
by the Innovation Management Committee of national representatives.
Instead, a small pilot project based on a centralised catalogue
database under CORDIS in Luxembourg is underway to test at least
some of the technical and (more importantly) administrative and
management principles (http://www.
cordis.lu/ergo). Following evaluation it is expected that the
full architecture will be implemented under Framework V.
The Architecture and How it Works
The full ERGO architecture envisages each region or member state
(and the EC itself representing the EU) having an information
system holding a catalogue of all known current European R&D projects.
After evaluation it is intended to extend later to cover experts,
institutions, facilities, publications, products - all subject
to subsidiarity. The ERGO regional catalogue computer accepts
interactive term-based queries from end-users. The selected catalogue
records (as the answer to the query) are then used to initiate
a full search for those specific projects, people or whatever
on the hundreds of distributed heterogeneous databases of R&D
information around Europe and the results are returned to the
regional computer where they are integrated before electronic
presentation to the end-user. The catalogue is replicated over
all regional computers; update of one regional computer copy by
a local R&D database causes replication to all other regional
computers. The whole system is based on the Web to ensure minimal
cost and maximal ease of use for the end-user.
ERGO Pilot
The pilot ERGO project will have one central node only with the
catalogue. The idea is to test input, update and query procedures
on a catalogue. Strict evaluation criteria will allow measurement
of the value of such a system and, by extrapolation, the full
system. Within UK, and with assistance from DTI-OST, three of
the R&D Project-supporting UKRCs are providing data for the pilot
project to CLRC-RAL (http://www.clrc.ac.uk/) where it is transformed
into the required form. CLRC-RAL thus acts as an interface between
the UK data sources and the European network. DTI-OST, the UKRCs
and CLRC-RAL discuss all aspects of the project to form a common
UK position. The use of a regional computer in UK for this purpose
anticipates the full architecture and so permits the UK team to
work closely with the CORDIS team on some of the aspects relating
to the full architecture.
CERIF
The catalogue content and structure is crucially important. Revision
of a 10-year old standard (CERIF) originally intended for data
exchange is now underway with different uses in mind. As well
as a data exchange format CERIF must also provide for ERGO a subset
which is the definition of the catalogue content and structure.
There must be sufficient information in the catalogue for a user
query to find relevant records yet not enough to make a deeper
(and on commercial databases charged) search worthless. The main
CERIF committee coordinates this work and, following extensive
discussions, the work has been crystallised into
- define the data model for an ideal research information system
- define the exchange format between research information systems
as a subset of the above
- define the catalogue format as a subset of the above.
Of course, with time it is likely that negotiated exchange formats
will be agreed between cooperating research information systems
but this first step ensures a move towards harmonisation and is
practical using advanced but known technology. The authors have
produced the formal document for the ideal data model and also
a prototype implementation of sufficient of the model to demonstrate
completeness for a range of queries experienced in different research
information systems.
The expected result will be a system such that:
- any European policymaker can easily assess the R&D capability
in any region or country in a particular topic or subject area
at a gross level
- any European academic can easily find complementary expert partners
for a R&D project or find suitable central facilities or equipment
for his/her needs
- any European user in commerce and industry can find easily all
relevant R&D products, experts and projects for a potential commercial
venture.
In this way we expect ERGO in the long run to play a key role
in supporting greater transparency across and among Member States
and in providing a basis for the improved co-ordination and coherence
of national and European programmes throughout the Union. An ambitious
aim, but one well worth the effort.
Please contact:
Keith Jeffery - CLRC
Tel: +44 1235 446103
E-mail: K.G.Jeffery@rl.ac.uk
