Research funding organizations face a complex landscape, managing extensive data, ensuring accurate attribution, and streamlining application and review processes. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) provides a powerful solution by offering a unique identifier for researchers, facilitating seamless integration and management of research activities. Integrating ORCID with grants management systems not only simplifies processes but also facilitates easier impact tracking and ensures data integrity.
In this blog, we will explore the numerous benefits of ORCID integration and how it can unlock greater efficiencies across the research funding landscape.
What is ORCID?
ORCID is a non-profit organization that provides researchers and scholars with a free, unique and persistent digital identifier. This alphanumeric identifier uniquely distinguishes individual researchers and ensures accurate attribution of their academic and professional outputs—such as publications, grants, and affiliations—throughout their careers, even as they change countries, institutional affiliations, or fields of study. ORCID addresses the problem of name confusion in the research community and provides a system that enables transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers and their contributions across various platforms and systems. By offering an open and interoperable registry, ORCID enhances the visibility, discoverability, and recognition of researchers’ work globally.
Benefits for researchers
Integrating ORCID into research funding systems offers benefits for both individual researchers and funding organizations:
For Researchers:
- Reduced administrative burden: Researchers often find themselves repeatedly providing the same information to various different research funding organizations. With ORCID integration, their personal and professional data can be automatically populated from their ORCID profile, aligning with ORCID’s mantra of “enter once, re-use often”. Saving valuable researcher time and reducing the risk of errors.
- Improved accuracy: Auto-populating forms with verified data reduces errors and ensures consistency.
- Recognition of contributions: With permission, funders can update researchers’ ORCID records with new awards, helping build a comprehensive and visible professional profile.
For Funding Organizations:
- Better data quality: ORCID provides verified, up-to-date information that improves the accuracy of evaluations and reporting.
- Streamlined workflows: Integration simplifies application and review processes, saving time for administrators and reviewers.
- Enhanced impact tracking: Linking funding to researcher outputs via ORCID enables more effective monitoring of research outcomes. This capability is crucial for demonstrating the value and impact of funded research to various stakeholders, including policymakers, funders, and the public.
Supporting the peer review process
Peer review is a cornerstone of research funding, and ORCID integration brings valuable improvements:
- Reviewer matching: ORCID iDs help identify reviewers with relevant expertise based on their verified contributions.
- Recognition of review activities: Funders can acknowledge peer review work by updating ORCID records, giving reviewers credit for their efforts and enhancing transparency in the review process.
This recognition not only supports professional development but also encourages broader participation in peer review, strengthening the research community.
How the ORCID API and integration works
The ORCID API (Application Programming Interface) is the backbone of ORCID integration with grants management systems. It allows these systems to communicate directly with the ORCID registry, enabling real-time access to researchers’ ORCID records. The integration process typically involves the following steps:
- Authentication: Researchers connect their authenticated ORCID iD with the grants management system, granting permission for the system to read from and write to their ORCID records.
- Data synchronization: The grants management system retrieves and synchronizes relevant data from the researchers’ ORCID profiles, such as biographical information, publications, and affiliations.
- Auto-population: This synchronized data can be used to auto-populate application forms, reviewer profiles, and other relevant fields within the grants management system.
- Automatic updates: Trusted entities, such as research funding organizations, have the capability to automatically update a researcher’s ORCID profile with details of new funding awards. This feature saves time and effort for researchers, again embodying ORCID’s principle of “enter once, re-use often.” It’s important to note that researchers maintain full control over their ORCID profiles, including the ability to deny or withdraw permission for organizations to make changes. Additionally, organizations with ORCID integration might choose to opt out of supporting automatic updates.
By leveraging the ORCID API, grants management systems can offer a seamless and user-friendly experience for researchers and administrators alike. The API provides various functionalities, such as retrieving and updating ORCID records, searching for researchers based on their ORCID iDs, and verifying researchers’ identities. These functionalities enable grants management systems to automate and optimize various tasks, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors.
Conclusion and next steps
The integration of ORCID with grants management systems represents a significant step towards creating a more connected and efficient research environment. By harnessing the power of persistent unique researcher identifiers, funding organizations can streamline processes, improve data quality, and enhance the overall management of research activities. As the research landscape evolves, embracing solutions like ORCID will be crucial for effectively addressing future challenges.
If your organization is already using SmartSimple Cloud, contact us today to enable ORCID within your system and improve your research funding processes.
Want to learn more about how SmartSimple Cloud works with ORCID to simplify your research grantmaking? Schedule a personalized demo today.