CODATA TG OT-ViRARe

The Open Tools and Visitation Frameworks for Global Research Assessment Reform OT-ViRARe is an international Task Group of the Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC).

OT-ViRARe aims to move beyond traditional publication-centric and metric-driven evaluation systems by developing transparent, equitable, and AI-ready approaches that recognize the full diversity of research contributions across disciplines, institutions, projects, and regions.

Why OT-ViRARe?

Research assessment systems worldwide continue to rely heavily on journal-based metrics and citation indicators. While useful in some contexts, these measures often fail to capture:

• Open Science contributions
• Research data and software outputs
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Community engagement and societal impact
• FAIR data practices
• Contributions from the Global South

OT-ViRARe addresses these challenges by integrating semantic technologies, knowledge graphs, AI-assisted analysis, and data visitation approaches to support more inclusive and context-aware assessment frameworks.

This initiative builds upon experiences gained through the #semanticClimate project, extending semantic AI approaches beyond climate-related documents to support assessment of:

• Research organizations
• Research projects
• Scientific themes
• Research infrastructures
• Open Science activities

Our Vision

To build a global ecosystem of open, interoperable, and trustworthy tools that enable responsible research assessment while respecting data sovereignty, privacy, and local contexts.

Planned Activities and Outputs (2025–2027)

2025

• Core Team Establishment
• ECR Engagement

2026

• Release of ORAT v1.0 (Open Research Assessment Toolkit)
• Guidelines for visitation-enabled responsible research assessment
• Launch of TG Working Groups on metadata/ontologies, policy frameworks, and capacity-building
• Metadata & Ontology Toolkit for multilingual, culturally sensitive, visitation-based semantic enrichment
• Regional workshops across Asia, Africa, and Latin America

2026

• OT-ViRARe White Paper
• Joint symposium with CODATA, RDA, GOSC, DSJ and national committees on integrating visitation into RRA
• Final report and open repositories of tools, schemas, demonstrators, training materials
• Presentation of outputs to the CODATA Community

Co-chairs:

Dr. Debasisa Mohanty
Dean (Research & Innovation), Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad, Haryana, India.

Dr. Peter Murray-Rust
Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics, Dept. Of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK and founder of #semanticClimate.

Dr. Adrianna Baravalle
Director of the Exponential Technologies Laboratory at the University of Austral in Argentina.

TG Secretary:

Dr. Gitanjali Yadav
Senior scientist at NIPGR and the founder of #semanticClimate. She is an advocate of youth empowerment, FAIR practices and positive action for global data policy.

TG ECR Lead:

Dr. Renu Kumari
Research Associate at BRIC-NIPGR, New Delhi, India and program manager of #semanticClimate.

GitHub repository

Event Participation: Dr. Adrianna Baravalle | CLICK HERE

List of workshops/ conferences organized by semanticClimate and BRIC-NIPGR

• June 9-10, 2025 | The Research AI Summit | Bridging Innovation & Open Science
• July 22-24, 2025 | FSCI 2025 | E01_AI-Assisted Literature Review on Open Access Repositories
• August 22, 2025 | Climate in Crisis | What Students Need to Know?
• August 25-26, 2025 | A Fun Science Demonstration for School Students
• August 27, 2025 | Climate Quest | Building Balance Together
• August 29, 2025 | National Conclave on Climate Education and Data Custodianship
• January 16, 2026 | BIF-DD-2026 | 13th Workshop on Bioinformatics and Drug Design
• January 28 and FEB 4-5, 2026 | BRIC-NIPGR & CODATA INDIA Hands-on Workshop FAIR and Reproducible Structural Biology
• March 24-27, 2026 | CODATA India Workshop on Liberation, Extraction & Reuse of Data
• April 17, 2026 | Learning Climate Knowledge Through a Biodiversity Game at Kendriya Vidyalaya INA Colony Opposite Vikas Sadan, New Delhi, India
• May 18, 2026 | Building Responsible and Trustworthy Climate Chatbot
• July 27-31, 2026 | FSCI 2026 | E01_AI-Assisted Literature Review
• August 31-September 04, 2026 | European Conference on Computational Biology, ECCB 2026

January 16, 2026

• Title : BIF-DD-2026 | 13th Workshop on Bioinformatics and Drug Design | Read about event

  • organizes hands-on session on AI for Literature Reviews (Case Study: Drug Discovery)

• Blog

Event Pictures

January 28, 2026

• Title : BRIC-NIPGR & CODATA INDIA Hands-on Workshop FAIR and Reproducible Structural Biology | Read about event

• Blog

Event Pictures

March 24-27, 2026

• Title : CODATA India Workshop on Liberation, Extraction & Reuse of Data | Read about event

• Blog

Event Pictures | See more