December 6, 2018: ORCID is pleased to announce the launch of an open letter in support of the use of ORCID identifiers (iDs) in the grant application and reporting process.
Nine funding bodies around the world have signed the letter -- and are inviting others to join them -- to indicate their support for "the use of ORCID iDs in our grant application and/or reporting workflows and our commitment to implementing ORCID in accordance with best practice guidelines for funders."
The launch signatories also support the ORBIT (ORCID Reducing Burden and Improving Transparency) project, intended to develop and test practical uses of identifiers in funder grant management systems through a Funder Working Group and a series of pathfinder projects. These initiatives, which also involve the adoption and use of other identifiers, including for grants, organizations, and publications, will enable an open infrastructure that supports open research.
In the order in which they appear on the letter, the nine launch signatories are:
Klement Tockner, Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Gerhard Moolman, National Research Foundation, South Africa
Bodo Stern, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, US
Robert Kiley, Wellcome Trust, UK
John-Arne Røttingen, Research Council of Norway
Concepta McManus, CAPES, Brazil
Alexander Thomson, The Royal Society, UK
Mark Walport, UK Research and Innovation
Michael Hill, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Robert Kiley, Head of Open Research at the Wellcome Trust and an ORCID Board member commented: "Wellcome is delighted to support this important initiative. We have been using ORCID in our funding workflows since 2015 to help to reduce the administrative burden on our grant applicants and improve the quality of data for evaluating our funding schemes."
In a blog post about ORCID at the Swiss National Science Foundation, another launch signatory, Michael Hill, Deputy Head of Strategy Support for SNSF, wrote: "With signing the ORCID funder Open Letter, which is officially launched today, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) commits to expand the integration of ORCID across our systems and in accordance with the best practice guidelines for funders. We encourage other funders to join us in this initiative, for the benefit of our researchers and our organizations alike."
For ORCID, Laure Haak, Executive DIrector, said: "The use of persistent identifiers for grantees, the funder, and the grant, is fundamental to open research. We are pleased to be working with funders to improve access to funding information and enable connections with researchers and their published data and works. Together, we can help create the open information infrastructure needed to foster innovation, increase transparency, and improve recognition for researchers' contributions."
###
For more information about -- or to sign -- the open letter, please see https://orcid.org/organizations/funders/open-letter.
For more information about the use of ORCID in funding workflows, please see https://orcid.org/content/orcid-funding-organizations.
About ORCID (https://orcid.org): ORCID's vision is a world where all who participate in research and innovation, from imagining to building and managing, are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, and borders, and time. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research and innovation activities. We provide open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations. We provide this service to help people find information and to simplify reporting and analysis.