Ricgraph as an open science infrastructure for research information

Ricgraph is also an open source open science infrastructure for research information that can store many types of items into a single graph, accessible through a user interface and a REST API. This infrastructure is operational and used in our Pilot project Open Ricgraph demo server.

Challenges

Building a open science infrastructure for research information is not easy. To integrate research information from various systems and from multiple organizations is even more complicated. This is not only a technical challenge, but also an organizational, legal, and privacy challenge. An active community is required.

In our pilot project, we are working on these challenges. At the moment, we have succeeded in building the infrastructure and integrating research information from various sources and from multiple organizations (for more information see the pilot project page). With each participating organization, we have legal and data processing agreements in place, allowing anyone to reuse the research information in Ricgraph. The pilot group is our active community.

Examples of projects that may profit from Ricgraph as an open science infrastructure

In 2025, Open Science NL awarded three projects that will need to have a collection of research information to achieve their goals. As far as currently known (November 2026), these projects have not yet started developing their own infrastructure. Ricgraph can give these projects a flying start, because they can focus on the aim of what they intend to do, and not on creating the infrastructure to do it.

In October 2025, Open Science NL awarded a project in a tender for an open science monitor:

  • The Dutch open science monitor, a project with CWTS, Dialogics, and others, for 330kE for 2 years.

    “This consortium will develop a robust, context-specific framework for monitoring and evaluation, as well as a prototype dashboard to visualize an open science monitor.”

In December 2025, Open Science NL awarded two projects in the Open Science NL call Open Science Infrastructures:

  • Broccoli for open research information, a project with SURF and others, for 1.5ME for 4 years.

    “Broccoli will bring accessible, reliable and reusable information on Dutch research actors, activities, and outputs together in an open infrastructure that facilitates evidence-informed decision-making in the Dutch research system.”

  • DURF, Strengthening the Netherlands research portal and institutional repositories, a project with SURF and others, for 1.5ME for 4 years.

    “DURF will reinforce the existing Netherlands Research Portal and existing institutional repositories/CRIS systems to make availability of Dutch research output more robust, increasing our resilience and sovereignty.”

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