NIMS Materials Data Repository

The National Institute of Materials Science is a nationally funded Japanese organisation which produces a large amount of data related to their research in materials science. Cottage Labs partners with NIMS to provide repository services suitable to deal with the scale and complexity of the data that comes out of departments such as their superconductor laboratories.

Challenge

Materials science data is notoriously diverse and complex, with data coming from a number of machines in a number of formats. NIMS wanted to build a digital repository to make their research available, and to describe it in sufficient detail to give it value for reuse.

Solution

Using Hyrax we built an advanced research data repository which supported the large and complex data models required to represent the data being archived. We also worked with materials science vocabularies to enhance discovery, and we integrated with a variety of internal systems including persistent identification systems and authentication. We continue to partner with NIMS to provide ongoing support and development to this critical platform.

Success

the NIMS Materials Data Repository is a substantial national-level archive of cutting edge research data, and forms the backbone of a number of further projects looking to extract the most value from the contents.