Registration Agency documentation

Background

As the global Registration Authority for the Research Activity Identifier (RAiD; see ISO 23527:2022), the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) solicits Expressions of Interest from organisations that wish to be RAiD Registration Agencies.

RAiD Registration Agencies provide a RAiD Service to a particular constituency, which may be thematic, geographical, or otherwise delimited. The ARDC grants considerable freedom to Registration Agencies concerning business models, extensions to the metadata schema, and other aspects of RAiD Service provision. Note that the ARDC does not grant any organisation exclusive rights to a domain or region.

Registration Agencies will implement agreements with organisations wishing to establish Service Points where users can mint and manage RAiDs.

Costs & obligations

Fees and fee structures pertaining to Registration Agencies are still under consideration. It is likely that Registration Agencies will pay a share of the DOI Foundation membership and global RAiD System operational expenses (e.g., for the search and resolution service at http://raid.org ), as well as contribute to a sustainability fund. Indicative Registration Agency fees are likely to be approximately USD/EUR/GBP 10-20k annually (after an initial ramp-up period at a discounted cost). We welcome feedback on a Registration Agency fee model and suggestions concerning other funding models.

Registration Agencies must operate software that complies with RAiD requirements. This requirement can be met in a variety of ways:

Registration Agencies may operate RAiD Service software provided by the ARDC.
Registration Agencies may hire a third-party provider to operate this software.
Registration Agencies may contract with the ARDC to provide RAiD Service software to them on a SaaS basis (pending adequate demand from the community). This SaaS offering will be conducted on a cost-recovery basis.
Registration Agencies may build and operate their own software, so long as it conforms to all RAiD Service requirements specified by the ARDC in its role as Registration Authority.

Details of these options follow.

If your organisation chooses to operate the software internally, indicative resourcing is approximately 1.0 FTE of a System Administrator / DevOps specialist for six to eight weeks for initial setup, and 0.1-0.2 FTE thereafter. An early version of the software is available on GitHub; please review and make your own resourcing assessment. Improving the redeployability of this software will be a development priority for the ARDC in 2024.

Given sufficient demand, the ARDC may offer to operate the RAiD Service software on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis. Such a service from the ARDC would be operated on a cost-recovery basis. An indicative cost for this SaaS offering may be approximately USD/EUR/GBP 10-20k per year (an estimate which will be updated when more information is available).

Registration Agencies have no obligation to use the ARDC’s SaaS offering, and may operate RAiD Service software themselves or contract directly with a third-party hosting service to operate it for them.

If your organisation chooses to develop your own software, it must comply with all RAID functional and performance requirements (e.g., implementation of the RAiD Metadata Schema, implementation of compatible APIs, compliance with DOI Foundation requirements, interoperability with RAiD Services operated by other Registration Agencies, compatibility with standard RAiD access controls, and compliance with performance standards).

Aside from operating a RAiD Service, Registration Agencies have a few additional obligations:

Agencies will actively promote RAiD uptake by organisations within their constituency (whether based on geographic area or domain), and onboard organisations to the RAiD System.
Agencies must also support Service Points at organisations utilising their RAiD Services. Service Points are expected to handle inquiries and support for individual users, but may need to escalate some matters to the Registration Agency. A common model will involve Service Points providing Tier 1-2 support, with the Registration Agency providing Tier 3 support.
Registration Agencies contribute to the governance of RAiD by means to be determined as the Registration Authority finalises the RAiD governance approach.

Benefits

Registration Agencies can operate a RAiD Service that federates with other such Services to form the global RAiD System. This RAiD Service allows Registration Agencies to mint and manage RAiDs for their constituencies.

Registration Agencies have considerable latitude to extend the RAiD Service software (e.g., extend the metadata schema, build new functionality, etc.), as well as to develop their own business plans.

Redeployable RAiD Service software will be available by the ARDC in due course. Agencies may also produce and operate their own software so long as it complies with all necessary requirements. The ARDC is also exploring the option of providing RAiD using a software-as-a-service model for an additional fee (see above).

Agencies will be allotted a Local Handle Server operated by the DOI Foundation and an identifier prefix range.

The ARDC will operate a global search, resolution, and retrieval service (web application and API) at http://raid.org .

The ARDC also ensures that all Registration Agencies, and the RAiD Service each supplies, integrate smoothly into the global RAiD System.

Definitions

RAiD Registration Agency: An organisation that operates a RAiD Service allowing users to mint and manage RAiDs.

RAiD Registration Authority: Governed by ISO 23527, the Registration Authority determines global policy and governance arrangements for RAiD. The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) is the RAiD Registration Authority.

RAiD: Research Activity Identifier. Governed by ISO 23527, RAiD is an identifier for research projects and sub-projects or tasks within such projects. It consists of a metadata record attached to a persistent identifier.

RAiD Service: Software operated or procured by the Registration Agency that allows users to mint, manage, and resolve RAiDs associated with the Agency (via web application or API).

RAiD Service Point: A unit within an organisation that provides user-facing RAiD services and support, including the minting and management of RAiDs.

RAiD System: The global federation of RAiD Services that provide local minting, management, and resolution of RAiDs, plus global search, resolution, and retrieval service at http://raid.org (via web application or API).