New Zealand Research Information System
Update – Issue # 10

14 October 2020

Welcome to the latest newsletter from the NZRIS programme. We’re excited to let you know that data submission to NZRIS will start soon, with the public release of this data through the new system later this year. We’ve also included updates from our most recent NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG) and Funder-Researcher Working Group (FRWG) meetings.

Phase 1 data submission starting soon

Image: NZRIS factsheet.

The first data submission happens this month which means NZRIS will be live to the public at the end of the year.

“We’re really excited that NZRIS is now about to become real. It’s been a long journey with the sector going from concepts and design to a functioning system. This is that important first step that New Zealand is taking to be one of only a few countries that have a national research information system,” says Amber Flynn, NZRIS Programme Manager.

The first three organisations to submit data to NZRIS are the Royal Society Te Apārangi, the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. They will be providing data about research funds they administer, how those funds are distributed, who’s received funding and the purpose of the funding.

“Nearly all the data that our data providers will be submitting is data that’s already publicly available on their own websites. However the difference is that this will be the first time all this data is available in one place, in a common format – so it will be easy to look across these funders to get a better insight into funding activity,” Amber says.

NZRIS is being developed in three phases. The first submission of data is part of Phase 1. We have included more information about this phase of NZRIS on our website - NZRIS - Phase 1.

We’ve also produced a fact sheet that explains more about what NZRIS is, how it works and what’s involved in Phase 1. Download the fact sheet [PDF 456 KB]

Phase 2 has started and will see more funding organisations join NZRIS and our initial three organisations starting to submit a wider range of data. Phase 3 starts in 2021 with research organisations able to submit data by 2022.

As always, if you have any questions, please get in touch with us at nzris@mbie.govt.nz

Working with the NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group and the Funder-Researcher Working Group

Like many of you, our stakeholder meetings are now virtual. This means we were able to meet with both the NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG) and the Funder-Researcher Working Group (FRWG) in August.

NSOG is a cross-sector skills-based group responsible for providing oversight of the NZRIS data approach and management. It works alongside the FRWG which represents a range of organisations and a variety of interests, skills and expertise, and provide a sounding board for NZRIS-related matters that affect the wider RS&I sector.

The topics covered at these meetings included:

• Discussion around the strategy roadmap and the product roadmap for NZRIS out to 2023.  We’ll be looking to finalise this and provide more information to our stakeholders in coming months.
• Communicating with the research sector about the scope and timeframes for the upcoming submission and public launch of NZRIS. This communication has started with the updates on our website and the factsheet for Phase 1 submission.
• Demonstration of the ICT system that makes up NZRIS.
• Progressing engagement with the Māori research sector and the goals for Māori data sovereignty. It is important that NZRIS meets the needs of Māori research communities. While NZRIS has been designed in consultation with Māori research stakeholders, there is more work to be done to ensure that NZRIS continues to work towards meeting goals around Māori data sovereignty. More information on the journey so far, and focus going forward.

We’ll be continuing our meetings and engagement with the NSOG and FRWG, with our next meetings in November. We’ll provide you with another update from these groups in our end of year newsletter.

“Asset Pool” now shown as “Asset Pool (Fund)”on the public website

We’ve made a slight change to the terminology we use on the NZRIS website for the Asset Pool data entity. For Phase 1, instead of just “Asset Pool”, you’ll see the term “Asset Pool (Fund)”.

The term “Asset Pool” was developed in consultation with the sector during the design phase of NZRIS. The term “Asset Pool” encompasses a wider range of resources for research, including ones which are not monetary in nature.

We’ve had feedback from potential users of NZRIS about what the term Asset Pool actually meant. As NZRIS will only include Government funds in the first few phases, we believe it makes sense to add the word “Fund” after “Asset Pool” for clarity. In future phases as we start including Asset Pools that aren’t financial, and as users are more familiar with NZRIS terminology, we’ll revert to using just “Asset Pool”.

This change will be on the public website at a title level. All technical documentation, such as the data specifications, will continue to refer to “Asset Pool”, but in our non-technical documents and communications we’ll refer to it as “Asset Pool (Fund)”.