How can researchers find experts to collaborate with? How do funders track research impact? And how can governments calibrate research and innovation ecosystems to meet national challenges?
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The answer is Persistent Identifiers, or PIDs: machine-readable, unique codes identifying and connecting researchers, organisations, data, publications and countless other research components. PIDs enable Australia to map research efforts and capability against national priorities and allocate resources effectively.
PIDs are delivered in Australia by the AAF and the ARDC, with the Australian National PID Strategy driving uptake across Australia’s research landscape. At a time when the burden of research management is causing real concern, administration effort saved through PIDs adoption is projected to save Australian research 38,000 person-days and nearly $24 million annually; increasing to $84 million when analysis includes technology transfer and innovation benefits.
ARDC’s RAiD logo.
Globally coordinated digital infrastructure, PIDs connect Australia to the worldwide research ecosystem. Australia is world-leading not only in the use, but also the development of PIDs, with the ARDC’s RAiD service, linking research project activities and components, used in Africa, Europe and the USA.
As questions around attribution are made all the more pressing by AI, PIDs give researchers and decision-makers the clearest, fullest possible picture of complex research landscapes, for the benefit of the Australian community.
PIDs contribute to research integrity by precisely identifying the resources used to conduct research and the outputs that result from it. The linking of PIDs to each other supports identification of scientific concepts across the system, driving research innovation and providing the evidence base for informed strategic decision-making at the institutional and national levels.” Incentives to Invest in Identifiers Report, 2022 (MoreBrains)