Demand more from your vendor!

Delivering benefits through asset systems“New technology delivering improved efficiency and sustainability to research equipment management”

Vendor engagement has become a critical component in delivering effective asset management systems, with a need to highlight the benefits of asset system functionality that will enable contribution and interoperability with equipment databases, both institutional and cross-sector. Adoption of the UNIQUIP data publishing specification in asset systems or related views, along with appropriate Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), will open up greater opportunities for efficiency in asset management relating to research equipment. These improvements will enable greater ownership of the data throughout the process and encourage contribution to quality from the academic community. There is a great deal of activity and technology entering this new landscape in HE helping to establish early standards development:- • equipment.data is supporting efforts to standardise the way data is discovered

and the vocabulary used through the application of linked open data techniques.

• Jisc are exploring the application of new standardised approaches to vocabularies with a pilot project working with CASRAI.

• Publishing equipment data to the web through an API, or enabling interoperability with an equipment database e.g. Kit Catalogue will allow the linking of equipment data with publications, a means for demonstrating impact of equipment. Using a standard form will enable aggregated reporting to systems such as RCUK’s Gateway to Research.

• Standardised vocabulary has enabled data aggregation across institutions supporting regional consortia research equipment search capabilities.

• Wider data publishing and discovery requirements are facilitating the sharing of emerging standards and technology developments across HE.

Aggregating data from across UK Higher Education

UNIQUIP Data Publishing Specification v1 Background  This specification was developed in order to define the requirements for equipment database data publishing to enable individual institutions' data to be harvested by or published to equipment portals (e.g. equipment.data.ac.uk). This document details the specification of the input and output data table.

Document  format  A uniquip document can be encoded as the following formats:

Name Suffix Notes Tab-Separated Values (TSV) .tsv One line per record. Tab separated columns. Comma-Separated Values (CSV) .csv See RFC4180 Excel Spreadsheet .xls/.xlsx Only the first worksheet should be used for uniquip data.

Data  submission  fields  Column Heading Required Description / Notes Type No Defined as either "equipment" or "facility". Name At least one of these

fields must be completed.

The name of the facility or equipment. Description A description of the facility or equipment.

Related Facility ID No Must be unset if type=Facility. If type=Equipment then this is the ID of a facility listed in this document which the equipment is part of. If an item of equipment is related to multiple facilities, multiple values may be specified separated by a mandatory comma “,” and optional whitespace (e.g. F0001, F0002).

Technique (:cpv) or (:N8) No Free text description of research discipline/field (e.g. Spectroscopy). This might also be a controlled vocabulary. Use of the N8 taxonomy is indicated by adding :N8 or CPV codes by adding :cpv.

Location* No The URL of a Wikipedia page for the city/town/borough in which the facility is in or near (see note below).

Contact Name No Contact name required along with at least one form of contact

Contact Telephone At least one of these fields must be completed.

A contact telephone number, with an optional text prefix (e.g. tel:) to make data input into spreadsheets easier.

Contact URL The URL of a web page containing contact information. Contact Email A contact email address. Secondary Contact Name No Secondary contact name if required. This must include at

least one form of contact. Secondary Contact Telephone At least one of these

fields must be completed with second contact name.

A contact telephone number, with an optional text prefix (e.g. tel:) to make data input into spreadsheets easier.

Secondary Contact URL The URL of a web page containing contact information. Secondary Contact Email A contact email address. ID No An institution assigned unique ID (e.g. Asset ID). If

required you may make this one-way encrypted (e.g. MD5 Hash)

Photo No The URL of a publicly accessible photograph of the facility (e.g. png, jpeg, gif).

Department No Organisational unit, school or research group which owns the facility (if appropriate).

Site Location Yes Campus or site location of building where the facility or equipment is located.

Building No Name or reference number of the building where the equipment or facility is based.

Service Level No Details of support available for the use of this facility or equipment.

Web Address No The URL of a web page giving information about the facility or equipment.

* The purpose of the “Location” field is to give a rough idea of where the facility is located for the purposes of logistics. Postcodes may be too accurate (the precise location of some facilities may be private), and co-ordinates are unwieldy for humans to use. Wikipedia pages represent an easily verifiable resource, which can be automatically converted into ‘approximate location’ coordinates for machine processing.

turn over to get involved

ASSET DATA

Questions to consider:-• Is your dataset UNIQUIP Data Publishing

Specification compliant?• Does your system have an API enabling

interoperability with other institutional systems? • Are you able to publish selected data to the web?

The UNIQUIP Data Publishing Specification is now RCUK’s preferred standard for the capture and publishing of equipment data. This standard is the culmination of HE sector engagement through the UNIQUIP Project and the subsequent development work through equipment.data, including early discussion with CASRAI to establish an entry in the CASRAI Dictionary.

http://equipment.data.ac.uk/uniquip

A common profile enabling effective interoperability - the vendors’ role

Need a piece of research equipment or a facility for a collaboration or service?

Enter your search term, e.g. NMR. Nearest results to you are listed first.

Found your item? Use the contact details and let the conversations begin!

Where do you start looking?

An equipment database!

Want to contribute data?Don’t have a database?Visit data.ac.uk/technology

It’s very easy! All you need to get started is a description, location and method of contact for each item.Current supported systems for managing publishing data include Pure, Agresso and Kit Catalogue. You can even publish from an Excel spread sheet! Follow the standard publishing specification developed by the UNIQUIP project at equipment.data.ac.uk/uniquip

The preferred method is to enable ‘auto discovery’ by including an Organisational Profile Document.Details at data.ac.uk/share-your-data

Aggregating equipment data from across UK Higher Education

Enabling access to UK HE research equipment

Need help? Get in touch! data.ac.uk/get-in-touch

Need to know where UK HE research capabilities are focussed? Need to download or analyse the data?

I’m surewe can help

Must follow theresearch council’s

equipment guidelines

Visit equipment.data.ac.uk

The UK HE national equipment and

facilities database

Your NMR spectrometer is just

what I’m looking for!

http://equipment.data.ac.uk/info

Visit this link to download these

posters and further info

Search a national database of research equipment

Making your data discoverable couldn’t be easier

Why should I get involved?

• Maximise your potential for future collaborations or utilisation - Publish on equipment.data• Ensure your grant application is robust – Check availability of equipment on equipment.data or

ensure you will maximise its future availability for use by indicating you intend to list the equipment on equipment.data

• You are establishing infrastructure for future data discovery and enabling linking with other data e.g. to demonstrate impact, capability or simply for marketing.

• With a unique asset ID from your system equipment.data generates a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) enabling referencing in other systems e.g. repositories of research outputs, which can link back to the full detail in equipment.data.

It’s really simple!

Getting involved couldn’t be easier with a range of self help pages on our website along with the simple ‘walk through’ posters blelow.