The implementation of national research data repository in South Africa

In South Africa, some research institutions do not have IT capability to provide digital storage for their research data. As a result, there has been an increasing need to look at how all institutions can be supported by offering them a central repository system that they can use in storing their research data so that it can be secure and retrievable for future use. The provisioning of competent and user friendly application to help researchers interact with centralized data repository is essential. The identification of an application that is capable of collection management, metadata extraction, metadata templates and metadata management has been done. The main systems that were identified are Dell EMC Metalnx as well as the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS). Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa is on the journey to implement reliable, persistent and easily accessible resource to safely share data. This integrated solution is intended to be made available to SA's research community. The objectives of this presentation is to present the National Data Repository that has been developed by DIRISA for South African researchers. The presentation will assist the researchers to gather inputs in terms of work done and foster future collaborations.