31st October 2023
IReL is pleased to announce that it will take over the role of Irish DataCite Consortium Lead Organisation from University College Dublin from 1st January 2024. DataCite is a global initiative that helps ensure that research outputs are openly available and discoverable. This new service expands IReL’s role in building trustworthy national research infrastructure. As national consortium lead for both DataCite (research object identifiers) and ORCID (researcher identifiers) IReL aims to support Action 4.4 of the National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2023 to ‘Invest in Persistent Identifier infrastructure to enable consistent monitoring and improve interoperability’.
Speaking about the development, IReL Director, Susan Reilly, said “we’re delighted to take on the lead role in DataCite Ireland and to continue working in partnership with Irish research performing organisations to increase the impact of Irish research by making it open and visible on a global level.”
On IReL joining DataCite’s global community, Matt Buys, Executive Director of DataCite commented: “DataCite is incredibly pleased to be partnering with IReL in their role to lead the Irish community and as we continue on our journey to redefine the way we interact with research outputs and resources. Together our efforts seek to make research more effective by connecting research outputs and resources–from data and preprints to images and samples.”
In its current form, the DataCite Ireland Consortium has been running since January 2018 and IReL looks forward to continuing the foundational work of University College Dublin in supporting the seven members.
“Since the inception of the DataCite Consortium Ireland in 2018, University College Dublin has been the lead member. We have had the privilege of seeing the membership grow and the minting of almost 260,000 DOIs. It is now time to hand the leadership of the consortium to IReL where it complements IReL’s national role leading the ORCID consortium. We look forward to continuing working with our Irish partners as an active member of the consortium.” (Dr Sandra Collins, University Librarian, University College Dublin)
About IReL: IReL is a consortium of Irish publicly-funded research libraries, the lead organisation for the Irish ORCID Consortium and the lead for the NORF-funded Open Access Monitor Project. Established in 2004, it provides participating member institutions with access to a wide range of licensed e-resources, open access publishing agreements with over twenty publishers, and open science infrastructure. IReL is hosted by Maynooth University.
About DataCite: DataCite is a leading global non-profit membership organisation that provides persistent identifiers (DOIs) for research data and other research outputs. DataCite is an active participant in the research community and promotes data sharing and citation through community-building efforts and outreach activities.
About UCD: UCD is one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities. In addition to serving a population of approximately 37,000 staff and students, UCD Library is also home to three world-class heritage collections: UCD Archives, the National Folklore Collection, and UCD Library Special Collections. UCD Library delivers a broad suite of research services for the University including research data management, and also maintains three digital repositories: the Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA), Ireland’s leading centre for quantitative data acquisition, preservation, and dissemination and national service provider to CESSDA; Research Repository UCD, which provides open access to UCD’s scholarly publications; and UCD Digital Library, a CoreTrustSeal certified repository for digitised cultural heritage data.