Overview
ISO 23527:2022 - Information and documentation - Research activity identifier (RAiD) defines the structure, use and governance of the Research Activity Identifier (RAiD) system. RAiD is a persistent identifier for research projects, sub‑projects or tasks and is intended to place the research activity at the centre of research workflows. The standard specifies a RAiD name, a corresponding RAiD metadata record, and the RAiD register managed by a Registration Authority. RAiD supports discovery, provenance and attribution and helps implement the FAIR principles for research data (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable).
Key topics and technical requirements
- Identifier scope: RAiD identifies research activities (projects, sub‑projects, tasks). It is explicitly not an identifier for individuals, institutions, or research outputs, nor a repository for deliverables.
- RAiD name format: Case‑insensitive, unique alphanumeric string split into a prefix and suffix (/). Human presentation must be preceded by “RAID ” (e.g., “RAID 123456/654321”).
- Registration Authority responsibilities:
- Maintain the RAiD register (database of names + metadata records).
- Assign/register RAiD names on application once required metadata meet assignment policy.
- Publish technical information and APIs for requesting and resolving RAiDs.
- Ensure uniqueness and persistence of RAiD names.
- RAiD metadata record: A manifest that links the activity name to structured metadata and relationships to other persistent identifiers. Minimum elements include associations to:
- Research organizations (ISNI, GRID, ROR)
- Contributors (ORCID, ISNI, email)
- Instruments, data, specimens (DOI, handle, IGSN)
- Publications (DOI), grants (grant identifier), funders (organization identifier), related projects (RAiD), and local identifiers
- Governance and principles: Annex A–C cover assignment principles, administration and implementation guidance (e.g., no semantic encoding in identifiers; document relationships when activities split or merge).
Applications and who uses it
- Research administrators and funders: track project lifecycles, grants and outputs.
- Data stewards and repository managers: link datasets and specimens to the originating activity for provenance.
- Publishers and infrastructure providers: resolve and display project context, enable machine‑actionable links.
- Research consortia and institutions: manage subprojects/tasks and document relationships between activities.
Using RAiD improves discoverability, attribution and reporting across scholarly and industrial research workflows.
Related standards and identifiers
- DOI (ISO 26324), ISNI (ISO 27729), ORCID, ROR, IGSN, GRID - RAiD metadata is designed to reference these existing persistent identifier systems to create interoperable links across research entities.