New Zealand Research Information System Update
Issue # 6

17 December 2019

Kia ora!

Welcome to our latest issue of the NZRIS newsletter. We are getting ever closer to having a system built and ready for the first submissions, and have been busy working with our sector partners on how we deliver the future phases of NZRIS.

In this issue we give an update on the system build, the latest news from two of our key stakeholder groups and hear from the Health Research Council about their experience in preparing for NZRIS.  

We’ve been getting lots of questions about different aspects of NZRIS, particularly around how it will work and how and when organisations need to get ready. Take a look at our website to check them out.

In the meantime, we’d like to wish everyone all the best for a safe and happy holiday season, and thank you for your continued support and involvement in designing and implementing this exciting new system. Remember if you have any questions at any time, to get in touch with us at nzris@mbie.govt.nz.

Ngā mihi
From the NZRIS team 

We’re nearly there with the system build!

We’re excited to show you images of how the NZRIS system is shaping up. With three main parts – including the Custodian App, the Data Warehouse and the public website – it’s been an extremely busy time for our developers.

Below we’ve included some images of the parts of the system that will be used by data providers (the Custodian App) and the public (the public website).

The Custodian App will be a secure web-based system that data providers will be able to use to submit, validate and approve their data before it goes into the NZRIS data warehouse. It will have a user-friendly dashboard from which data can be checked as it goes through the submission process. The system will guide data providers through the steps involved. Here are some screenshots of how it will look. It is still being developed, but we think these images should give you a good idea of how it’ll look when it’s ready. We’re looking forward to taking our first data providers through the system soon.

We are also busy building the public website where selected data will be available for anyone to view and explore. Our aim is to design and build a system that is able to show complex information in a simple way, while also having the capacity to grow, change and develop over time to meet future needs.

Here are some photos of how the website’s starting to shape up:

We are currently looking at our Custodian App being ready for the first data submissions in February next year, and the full system being available by April.

NZRIS is a sector-driven system

We recently held our second NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG) meeting, and our first meeting of the refreshed Funder Researcher Working Group (FRWG).

Both are sector-led groups, with NSOG meeting four times a year, and FRWG up to three times a year.

NSOG is a skills-based group responsible for providing data oversight and stewardship for NZRIS. It will oversee revisions to the NZRIS data specifications and provide oversight and guidance on other operational aspects of NZRIS. At the most recent meeting, the Terms of Reference [DOCX 108 KB] were adopted and the group heard from MBIE’s Chief Data and Insights Officer Evelyn Wareham.

FRWG’s focus is on implementation topics for NZRIS, providing a voice and tangible, practical guidance and input from the sector. A copy of the FRWG’s Terms of Reference [PDF 108 KB] can be found here. They will work with NSOG, providing more of an implementation focus on working through and testing potential solutions to identified issues and topics, and providing the sector’s perspective on these matters. The FRWG will also act as a conduit for feeding into future design for NZRIS.

Key topics that both NSOG and FRWG will be looking at include:

• Updates to the data specification (i.e. clarifying definition and business rules, duplication etc.)
• Interoperability and integration with other data systems
• Clarifying data ownership in the context of NZRIS data

HRC’s Esther Viljoen, along with her colleague Jason Cleaver, have been focused on ensuring that HRC has not only got its data ready to submit, but that it’s been actively involved in helping shape the design and implementation of NZRIS.

“We made a decision right from the start to engage fully in NZRIS, volunteer for everything and get involved – and it’s really paid off. MBIE decided upfront that NZRIS would be co-designed with the sector, and they’ve been true to their word. They have consulted every step of the way, asked for feedback and/or advice and made changes in response to feedback,” Esther says.

Examples of how HRC’s involvement influenced the development of NZRIS include HRC’s comments on the data specification that a funder couldn’t provide output information – the result being that the data specification was changed to introduce different levels of data providers. HRC also proposed a governance and oversight body for NZRIS that was independent of one agency, with the result that we now have the sector-based NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group.

Esther says one thing that has been a pleasant surprise is how easy it’s been to engage with the new data specification.

“It’s really not that bad. It seems daunting at first, but in fact it’s very clear and if you work through it methodically, you’re likely to find it fairly straight forward and realise that you actually have most of the information required.”

Esther says that she and Jason have mapped their current data against the specification, identified gaps (where they don’t collect the data) and determined shortcomings (where the data is collected but not to the right level). They’ve simply created an Excel spreadsheet to manage this discovery phase. Once the scope of the first submission into NZRIS was finalised and the data fields that need protecting were identified, Jason developed an API to facilitate the data transfer.

A key area of focus has been looking at how HRC can inform the researchers and organisations it funds of data requirements for NZRIS. This requirement is not unique to HRC and is something all data providers need to look at. This work has now been captured in a wider work stream led by MBIE on behalf of all the first data providers, which will see clear, comprehensive communications of requirements to research organisations.

However, as Esther says, “this is not such an issue for Phase 1” as all data provided during Phase 1, is data that is already in the public domain.