OSIRIS as an Open, Flexible CRIS for Distributed Scientific Infrastructures: Insights from its Deployment in the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI)

6 pages•Published: October 19, 2026

Martinique Frentrup, Sina Barysch, Dominic Koblitz, Julius Witte and Julia Koblitz

Abstract

OSIRIS is an open-source Current Research Information System (CRIS) created to support research organisations whose activities include more than traditional publication outputs, e.g. conference posters, events or teaching. Its core mission is to offer a configurable, sustainable, and highly adaptable alternative to conventional CRIS solutions that are frequently designed around the needs of universities or institutes. Scientific consortia and distributed infrastructures often produce software releases, datasets, workflows, training events, and community-building activities that do not fit neatly into rigid, publication-centric systems. OSIRIS was developed precisely to address challenges like this and was successfully implemented at several scientific institutes in Germany. The German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI) provides an ideal example of a modern, distributed research environment where OSIRIS can unfold its full potential. As a nation-wide consortium that coordinates bioinformatics services across eight service centres including 24 institutes, de.NBI requires a CRIS that can adequately capture the diversity of its scientific, technical, and community-oriented contributions. The deployment of OSIRIS within de.NBI demonstrates how a flexible and open-source system can empower a large infrastructure to communicate its outputs effectively, reduce reporting burdens, and improve internal communication and cooperation. This contribution presents OSIRIS through its system perspective and highlights the lessons learned from its adoption in the de.NBI network.

Keyphrases: de.nbi, distributed architecture, germany, open infrastructures, open source software, osiris, use cases

In: Pablo de Castro and Joachim Schöpfel (editors). Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems, vol 5, pages 248-253.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/Pjkg
	https://doi.org/10.29007/gkhw

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{CRIS2026:OSIRIS_as_Open_Flexible,
  author    = {Martinique Frentrup and Sina Barysch and Dominic Koblitz and Julius Witte and Julia Koblitz},
  title     = {OSIRIS as an Open, Flexible CRIS for Distributed Scientific Infrastructures: Insights from its Deployment in the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI)},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems},
  editor    = {Pablo de Castro and Joachim Schöpfel},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Technology},
  volume    = {5},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2516-2322},
  url       = {/publications/paper/Pjkg},
  doi       = {10.29007/gkhw},
  pages     = {248-253},
  year      = {2026}}

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