New Zealand Research Information System Update
Issue # 5

28 August 2019

Welcome to the latest update from the NZRIS programme.

In this issue we update you on:

• The inaugural meetings of two key NZRIS groups:
  - the NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG)
  - our new Crown Research Institute working group

• A new “real time” collaboration space for NZRIS, using GitHub

• Jason Gush of the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s views on NZRIS

As always, get in touch if you have any questions by emailing the team at nzris@mbie.govt.nz.

First NSOG meeting focuses on Terms of Reference

The inaugural meeting of the newly formed NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG) was held on 1 August.

The focus of the meeting was to review and refine the group’s Terms of Reference to ensure there is a clear understanding of NSOG’s purpose and responsibilities.

Professor Richard Blaikie of the University of Otago is chair of NSOG, and he says it was great for the group to not only come together to meet for the first time and learn about NZRIS, but also to crystallise how NSOG can best serve the needs of the sector and NZRIS going forward.

“At the meeting, we agreed that NSOG’s role is to ensure that NZRIS meets, represents and serves the needs of the research sector, and also that we support the NZRIS team to deliver a product that is well managed, allows for the right data to be collected in the right way, and is as future-proofed as possible. NZRIS is a system that is for the sector, so it needs to work for them,” he says.

“The meeting was a great opportunity to come together and think about how we can best achieve this by refining our Terms of Reference. I was also really impressed with the calibre, skills and experience of our members.” 

NSOG was set up earlier this year, and its members come from right across the research sector. They represent a range of interests and sector groups including research funders, research providers and importantly the Māori research community. Ensuring that NZRIS incorporates kaupapa Māori research concepts and approaches is a vital part of its design and implementation. For more information about NSOG and its members, check out our website.

The next meeting will be held in November, with a view to endorsing the Terms of Reference. We’ll share these with the sector once they are finalised.

CRI working group launched

A new working group for Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) intending to join NZRIS met for the first time in late August.

Dr Mark Garisch of the NZRIS team says the purpose of the working group is help CRIs become familiar with NZRIS, facilitate collaboration between them, and start to understand their levels of readiness.

“We had seven CRIs attend the first meeting. As well as briefing the group on NZRIS and how it will work, it was also an opportunity for them to share their own experiences with each other and think about common areas they share,” he says.

Work undertaken as part of the Universities Working Group was also shared with the group – in particular tools on how to carry out a data gap analysis to identify the availability and quality of current data, and match that to NZRIS requirements.

“This tool was developed by Jeff Kennedy of the University of Auckland, and it sets out a clear and common sense approach to assessing how aligned your data is to NZRIS’ standards,” Mark says.

At the meeting, Charlie Stanners of AgResearch presented to the group about his organisation’s work to prepare for NZRIS (see NZRIS update #3 for more details), which will see AgResearch put NZRIS at the heart of their reporting and analysis going forward.

Charlie says: “Our view is that NZRIS provides us with an opportunity and catalyst to start transforming the way we record and report on our data. The public interface is only one part of NZRIS – it’s the secure data provider interface and data warehouse behind it that we see as being of great use to our organisation.”

The next meeting for the group is planned for September. 

NZRIS GitHub site fosters technical collaboration

Our new GitHub space is helping foster a virtual technical working sub-group for NZRIS.

GitHub was founded in 2008 and is an online platform that makes it easier for developers to work together and to help solve challenging problems in a collaborative way. Our site, which can be found at https://github.com/new-zealand-research-information-system, is a public, community-focused space for anyone who’s responsible for understanding and giving effect to the NZRIS data specifications within their organisation.

Chris Dangerfield of the NZRIS programme team says the space has three main subjects: the NZRIS code sets, the data specifications and the API specifications.

“The space includes links to key documents such as code sets and the data specifications, and also allows issues to be raised and responded to. You can also easily see what has been changed and the issues that have been resolved.”

Chris says the site is a good way for the technical questions to be recorded in a central location and allows suggestions for improvements. Everything will stay on the website, so it’s a good way for providers to see if a question’s been asked before.

Remember – you can also always direct your questions to the NZRIS team directly at nzris@mbie.govt.nz

That’s according to Dr Jason Gush, who is responsible for the Insights and Evaluation Programme at the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and a member of the NZRIS Stewardship and Oversight Group (NSOG).  

Jason has been involved in NZRIS since 2016 when the Research, Science and Innovation Domain Plan – which identified the need for a nation-wide research information system – was released.

 He says despite the lengthy lead-in time to the new system, he can see real progress is being made and is enjoying the team approach that’s been taken. 

 “There has been a good ‘get together’ feeling about this, people have been engaged and there is something of a community that has been created. The NZRIS team at MBIE has been responsive and it’s been a good crew to work with.”

 The in-depth involvement that Jason has had with NZRIS means he has valuable insights and advice for other research organisations that are not yet familiar with NZRIS.

 “The first thing to remember is that NZRIS is not just going to be a public website – it will also include a secure data warehouse facility that data providers can access through a user interface that is protected and unique to them.  This means that NZRIS is effectively providing organisations with a secure store in which they can hold their data, so it’s definitely an opportunity.”

He acknowledges that it can be difficult for an organisation to know where to start when it comes to getting their data ready.  

“As a new organisation, I would first look at what your obligations are. For example, if your organisation funds research rather than undertakes it, then you’re likely to fall into the ‘Asset Pool Manager’ category. This means that the data you submit to NZRIS will be about the funds you manage and how you distribute them.

 “It’s important to focus on the mandatory data and what needs to go in these fields. The mandatory data is the minimum set of data that is required. It’s also important to remember that to start with, the only data NZRIS requires is data that is already public data anyway.

 “Even though the focus should be on the mandatory data that is required, as data will not be accepted into the system without these, I do recommend that organisations keep in mind other types of data they may need to provide in future. For example, data about project activity or type of activity is data that NZRIS will accept. Even though organisations will often collect this data as part of the application process, it’s not something that is necessarily kept in mind beyond the application process. So it’s good to think about starting to capture that kind of data now.”

Jason is also keen on the new NZRIS GitHub site, available at https://github.com/new-zealand-research-information-system, which is a shared space aimed at people working through the NZRIS data specifications and wanting to raise technical issues or ask questions. More detail on our Github site can be found in the previous article.  

“The new GitHub site is great, because it’s a real-time forum where we can come together as a community to raise any issues we find, and have them addressed. The NZRIS team has been responsive and I think it’s working well,” Jason says. 

If you’d like to talk to Jason more about his views and experience with NZRIS, feel free to get in touch with him at Jason.gush@royalsociety.org.nz – he’d be happy to hear from you!