Folie 1

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Quality is the Product is the Quality
Information Management as a Closed-loop
Process
Jürgen Güdler and Holger Hahnen
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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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Five key goals of the DFG

• serve as central public funding organisation
  for promoting academic research in Germany
• foster scientific excellence through competition
• advise parliaments and public authorities on
  questions relating to science and research
• support the advancement and education of
  young researchers
• encourage international collaboration in science
  and the humanities

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Construction Engineering and Architecture
Computer Science, Electrical and System
Engineering
A
Humanities
DFG Funding covers all scientific disciplines
1
7
9
Material Science
Social and
3
Behavioural Sciences
Thermal and Process Engineering
6
Soc.Sc. Humanities
4
Engineering Sciences
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

• Research fields
• Soc.Sci.Humanities 15
• Engineering Sciences 21
• Natural Sciences 26
• Life Sciences 38

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Biology
16
Geosciences
6
Life Sciences
Natural Science
Mathematics
3
Physics
10
Medicine
Chemistry
20
7
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
2
Based on DFG funding 2002 to 2004 3.683 Million
Euro
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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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product governed quality assurance a model

• Quality Usage Frequency
• the quality of data increases with the number of
  products for which it is used
• each product adresses a specific group of users
  with specific interests
• each group reacts in a specific way to any
  given product
• every response triggers the quality assurance
  process
• Preconditions
• use of a single data source for different
  information products
• use of a centralised and structured quality
  assurance process

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product governed quality assurance a model
different products
different users
one data source
one qa-team
individual Letters
applicants, reviewers
management reports
report users
ElektrA IRD
Quality assurance team
Feedback
funding ranking
Ranking recipients
GEPRIS
GEPRIS users
Research Explorer
REx users
quality assurance
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ElektrA the data source

• Facts and figures
• DFG internal electronic proposal processing
  system
• in use since 2005 (integration ofdata as from
  1982)
• used for all funding programmes
• used by about 700 staff members
• data source for all informationproducts
  published by the DFG
• contains data on (continiously growing)
• 500,000 proposals
• 150,000 people
• 30,000 national and international university
  and non university institutes

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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG

• The Idea of the IRD
• in Germany a lot of actors are involved in the
  organisation and funding of research at
  universities and non-university institutions e.g.
  DFG, DAAD, German Rectors conference (HRK),
  Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation (AvH)
• Since the late 1990s there is a growing need for
  exchanging data on an institutional base between
  these organisations
• DFG itself was in need of a standardised
  institutional classification of proposals and
  reviewers for statistical purposes (e.g.
  rankings)
• Result
• introduction of a common key for institutional
  affiliations as a helpful tool

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The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
Content of the IRD detailed information on
institutes
IRD

• Name
• Name engl.
• Short-Name
• Subject ID
• Subject Name
• Institutional ID
• Part of
• Federal State
• Country
• Inst.-Form
• Inst.-Type
• Postal Information
• Street
• Zip Code City
• Phone
• Fax
• E-Mail
• Internet
• Parent Institution ID

Institut für Stromrichtertechnik Elektrische
Antriebe Institute for Power Electronics
Electrical Drives ISEA 7100 Elektrotechnik 68345 F
akultät für Elektro- Informationstechnik
Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany University Institut I
nstitut für Stromrichtertechnik Elektrische
Antriebe RWTH Aachen Jägerstr. 17/19 52066
Aachen 0241/80-6920 0241/67505 dedoncker_at_rwth-aach
en.de http//www.isea.rwth-aachen.de 72545
german institutions in the IRD
1,500
350
Universities non univ. bodies
3,700
Faculties etc.
Institutes
7,100
Sub-Institutes etc.
7,300
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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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IRD based products

• Introduction
• all examples provided are based on the IRD
• each product is tailor made to meet specific
  needs of every single target group
• each product contains additional information to
  those provided by the IRD
• each product contributes to the product governed
  quality assurance

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IRD based products individual letters

• Characteristics
• letters to applicants, reviewers, and members of
  the Statutory Bodies of the DFG
• adresses used are based on the IRD
• ease of use by selecting adresses via interface
• central quality assurance

• Contribution
• active use of adresses when sending letters
• about 30.000 proposals per year resulting in
  about 100.000 letters to people involved in the
  application process
• 80 of all adresses held in the IRD are used at
  least once a year
• letters with incorrect adresses are returned and
  quality process is triggered

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IRD based products University report

• Characteristics
• database driven report
• sent to DFGs member institutions every 6 months
• gives information on all funding approvals by the
  DFG sorted by department and institute

• Contribution
• reflects the structure of the university
• missing institutes can be detected easily
  bytarget audience
• immediate feedback by the central contact person
  at the university

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IRD based products DFG Funding Ranking

• Characteristics
• most important statistical product of the DFG
• published 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006
• central indicator DFG awards per institution
• shows among others also thematic priorities
  within the EUs Sixth Framework Programme
• looks at the issue of regional cooperation within
  other universities

• Contribution
• compiles data from various sources of information
  (primarily funding organisations)
• generates concordances to cross reference between
  various institutional systems
• figures reported are of great value to the
  universities for planning and control purposes
• high quality data is imperative

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IRD based products DFG Funding Ranking

• Networks supported by DFG-programmes research
  area biology

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IRD based products GEPRIS

• Characteristics
• information system on DFG-funded projects
  (relaunch mid-2006)
• main feature integration of the IRD
• different search functions
• shows all funded projects at a university,
  department, or institute

• Contribution
• three quality checks
• first during proposal processing
• second by applicant before publishing
• constant email-feedback by users and applicants

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IRD based products Research Explorer
(research-explorer.dfg.de)

• Characteristics
• a new source of strcutured information on German
  research institutions
• bilingual information product
• joint project of DFG and DAAD
• gives detailed information on more than 20,000
  institutes at german universities and other
  research institutions
• links to GEPRIS for information on funded
  projects

• Contribution
• Specific on-line form which allows users to
  report missing institutes to the DFG in a
  structured manner
• established workflow for handling user-generated
  error reports

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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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Quality assurance at the DFG

• Concept and practical use bringing it all
  together
• after showing the model of products governed
  quality assurance and how the different products
  contribute to this model, we now have a look at
  the actual quality management process at the DFG
• The quality management process at the DFG
• each product shown calls for a different quality
  assurance procedure
• some products generate standardised feedback by
  using forms, others rely on feedback by e-mail
• each product has a different quality assurance
  process
• the DFG has a central unit located at the
  Department of Information Management
• this unit carries out all quality assurance
  processed for all the products mentioned

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Quality assurance at the DFG
Quality assurance procedure used in GEPRIS an
example
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Structure of the Presentation

• Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German
  Research Foundation (DFG)
• The concept of product governed quality
  assurance
• The Institutional Repository (IRD) of the DFG
• IRD based products
• Quality assurance at the DFG
• Conclusion and pospects

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Conclusion and prospects

• Further use of the IRD
• give access to the IRD to partners wishing to use
  this high quality data for own products, e.g. to
  perform evaluations, analyse publications and
  citations with respect to a specific institution
• Enhancement of IRD based products
• looking for new external partners, who can
  contribute high quality data, thus increasing the
  information on the research profiles of
  institutes covered
• further linking between DFG informations
  products, as done with GEPRIS and Research
  Explorer. Futher add-ons could be the Funding
  Ranking or adding statistical information

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Conclusion and prospects

• Conclusion
• although adding partners requires more work to
  coordinate the various datasets, each addition is
  an investment in the overall quality of the
  underlying data
• the diversity of the products with different
  quality assurance procedures contributes to the
  overall quality in a way a pure information
  system solely used for information purposes,
  would be never able to
• Quality is the product is the quality
• according to this principle all of the products
  benefit from the various quality assurance
  procedures

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Thank you for your attention!
Jürgen Güdler Holger Hahnen German Research
Foundation Information Management juergen.guedler
_at_dfg.de holger.hahnen_at_dfg.de