After several years of preparation, the HUN-REN Data Repository Platform (ARP) is ready to be launched in March 2024. The project is being implemented by experts from three research institutions belonging to the HUN-REN network: the Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI), the Social Science Research Centre (TK) and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics (Wigner FK), with the support of the HUN-REN HQ (formerly ELKH Secretariat).

The official website of the ELKH ARP: https://researchdata.hu/en

ARP refers to a nation-wide data repository and its associated services. This niche infrastructure provides unique conditions for the long-term secure storage, management and sharing of data generated by the HUN-REN research community.

The ARP's fundamental aim is to facilitate the visibility and reusability of research data originating in a wide range of disciplines. Its services aim to make the results of individual data collections traceable, retrievable and linkable. In this way, ARP not only supports research in the present, but also ensures the preservation of research materials representing great value for the history of science.

The ARP helps researchers, research communities and scientific project staff in a number of ways to improve their work in line with open science and modern data management principles. Tools for rich data documentation and the creation of specific metadata facilitate the archiving and re-use of data, as well as connections to national and international research and research infrastructures. 

The creation of a state-of-the-art domestic research data storage infrastructure will facilitate Hungary’s involvement in European initiatives with similar objectives such as the pan-European research infrastructure EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) at an institutional, technological, and direct data link level.

Another one of our key tasks is to disseminate knowledge about the use of data repositories, to establish the necessary data management policies and regulations both at the HUN-REN and at the institutional level, and to introduce domestic and international data and metadata management and storage standards and recommendations, thus enabling the establishment of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data repository culture within HUN-REN's institutional network.

The new Data Repository Platform (ARP) will greatly contribute to the achievement of the objectives set out in Hungary's Research, Development, and Innovation Strategy (2021-2030), which include the increased utilization of research results from public research institutions as well as the expansion of the capacity of knowledge flow and production.

For the time being, the ARP Data Repository hosts research data provided by the HUN-REN research network and their partners at Hungarian higher education institutions. However, the research data hosted in the Data Repository will be accessible to a wider audience, including the national and international research community, higher education and the competitive sector, as well as the general public interested in science.

For more information on the project, please contact the head of the Research Documentation Centre, Judit Gárdos at gardos.judit@tk.hu.