Bridging Gaps in PID Adoption: PID4NFDI's Coordination Hub

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) are essential for ensuring the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) of research outputs. By providing rich, standardized, and machine-readable metadata with long-term availability, PIDs enable detailed description of a large number of (research) resources such as data, publications, code, persons, institutions, projects, grants, and so on. Their impact spans the entire research life cycle, from funding applications to publication and reuse of outputs, offering numerous advantages for researchers and infrastructure providers alike. The PID4NFDI project is a basic service within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and is currently in its second funding phase (integration). Its overarching goal is to consolidate, harmonize, and evolve the PID service landscape across NFDI at technical, organizational, methodological, and communication levels. During its first (initialization) phase, PID4NFDI analyzed the use of PIDs in the NFDI consortia to identify common challenges and requirements. A survey revealed a fragmentation of the German PID landscape in terms of PID providers, resource types, infrastructures, and use cases. Common challenges were identified, such as ensuring long-term PID service provision due to the lack of dedicated, non-project-based budgets, and handling diverse PID provider requirements. The survey also highlighted that many organizations lack formalized PID policies beyond general Open Science guidelines. An uneven engagement with PID training efforts across the community currently favors knowledge gaps that directly impact the effectiveness of PIDs. To address these challenges, PID4NFDI is developing an overarching strategy through the establishment of the PID Coordination Hub–a service providing transparent information and support for all PID-related questions. Key initiatives include the creation of a PID Cookbook to guide users on obtaining PIDs from various providers, and a PID Selection Tool to help organizations choose suitable providers based on use case specifics, resource types, and budget constraints. The project is collaborating with PID Network Germany to develop PID guidelines and implement them via the Compliance Assessment Toolkit from the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In terms of metadata management, PID4NFDI aims to enhance interoperability by promoting centralized solutions for storing metadata schemas, mappings, crosswalks, and extensions. This includes integrating and promoting tools such as the Data Type Registry and the Metadata Schema and Crosswalk Registry within the PID Coordination Hub. Additionally, a special focus is set on integrating PIDs into research data management (RDM) tools such as electronic lab notebooks and data management plans. Training remains a critical focus area for PID4NFDI. By providing tailored training materials and events for varying levels of expertise, the project seeks to bridge knowledge gaps within the community. During the presentation, we will showcase key tools provided by PID4NFDI–including the PID Cookbook and the PID Selection Tool–and demonstrate how these can be effectively utilized by different stakeholders. The audience will be provided with practical insights into leveraging PIDs for improved RDM. PID4NFDI's comprehensive approach addresses shared challenges in PID management while fostering collaboration across consortia.