1 year of SURF Research Access Management: a stable basis for research collaboration
Since the beginning of 2021, SURF Research Access Management has enabled research collaborations to arrange access to research services quickly, easily, and securely. We are now a year on: what have we achieved in the past year and what will we focus on in 2022?
What is SURF Research Access Management?
SURF Research Access Management enables a research collaboration to manage access to research services quickly and easily. Institutions themselves appoint people to manage collaborations. They can then invite people from all over the world to join the partnership using their institution's account. Users from outside education and research are also welcome: with eduID, anyone with a 'guest account' can also become a member.
This infographic shows how SURF Research Access Management works.
399 partnerships created after just one year
When we were developing SURF Research Access Management, a number of enthusiastic institutions took part in the test. By the time SURF Research Access Management went 'live', the number of collaborations had risen to 27. By the end of 2021, that figure had risen to 399, created by a total of 19 institutions that already use the service. The number of organisations that are known within SURF Research Access Management is higher; users of institutions that do not use the service themselves can become members of collaborations managed by other institutions. By the end of 2021, more than 1,200 unique users from no fewer than 57 different institutions had logged in at least once.
SURF Research Access Management: number of collaborations, organisations and users in 2021
46 services linked to SURF Research Access Management
Collaborations and their users can of course only benefit from SURF Research Access Management if services are also available. By 2021 this number will have steadily grown to 46.
Number of services linked to SURF Research Access Management by 2021
SURF Research Access Management in 2022
The more research collaborations use SURF Research Access Management, the greater the added value of the service. It will then be more attractive for suppliers of research services to offer their services via SURF Research Access Management. This naturally also works the other way round: the more services that are available via SURF Research Access Management, the more attractive it becomes for research collaborations.
Increasing use
An important aim for 2022 is therefore to increase the use of SURF Research Access Management. We will contact more institutions and research support staff to show them the value of SURF Research Access Management. We can also help institutions, researchers, and supporters establish a technical link between, for example, an existing service and SURF Research Access Management.
Expanding features
We are also working on new features, such as increasing the security and reliability, optimising the user interface, and support for token-based authentication and authorisation. Of course, we are not doing this alone; together with the institutions, collaborations, and service providers, we are looking at which features are still lacking and how we can provide a solution using SURF Research Access Management.
SURF Research Access Management in DCC projects
Researchers can approach the Digital Competence Centres (DCCs) at their own institution with ICT and data issues for their research. SURF Research Access Management is the answer to some of these questions. SURF has supported a number of DCCs in implementing this service. We have, for example, helped the University of Twente to configure their own NextCloud instance, enabling researchers themselves to invite domestic and foreign colleagues to collaborate. With our help, UMC Groningen was the first institution to link a High Performance Compute (HPC) environment to SURF Research Access Management. And together with Maastricht University, we connected Ldot, a service for logistical management of clinical research, to SURF Research Access Management.
More information
- Check www.surf.nl/sram
- See the wiki for more technical details, or
- contact Arnout Terpstra, product manager SURF Research Access Management, arnout.terpstra@surf.nl.