RADAR (Research Data Repository) is a multidisciplinary data repository for the archiving and publication of research data resulting from completed scientific studies and projects. Its focus lies on research data of the so-called "long tail", i.e. disciplines that handle smaller amounts of data and usually do not yet have their own infrastructure for research data management.

RADAR strives to support researchers and academic institutions in promoting the traceability, reproducibility and transparency of research results. Furthermore, RADAR aims at improving the visibility of research data as independent publications and creates the possibility to reuse data once collected to answer new questions.

RADAR is committed to provide access to and long-term availability of archived and published datasets for the good of the research community.

RADAR reacts to new requirements of the target group and the dynamically developing science policy framework in the field of research data management. The aim is to make the archiving and publication of digital research data easier, more attractive and more demand-oriented for researchers, institutions and the scientific community.

The range of functions of the service is constantly being expanded in line with the needs of the community after consultation with the RADAR Advisory Council.

RADAR-using institutions are involved in the further development of RADAR. A user advisory council consisting of representatives of five institutions advises FIZ Karlsruhe on the further development of the RADAR service, both from a technical and organizational point of view.

The board identifies and prioritizes planned functionalities. Together with the RADAR team, it then compiles the RADAR roadmap for the following year and derives the development priorities. It also advises on general developments, initiatives and funding opportunities concerning research data management. Finally, the board supports FIZ Karlsruhe in the further development of the RADAR operating model.

Together with the User Advisory Council, FIZ Karlsruhe is consistently pursuing the demand-oriented further development of RADAR, which began in the DFG project phase themed "From the community - for the community", also in productive operation.

Press Release (23.01.2020)

Participating institutions:

• Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Braunschweig
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• The Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry (IPB), Halle/Saale
• Universität FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn

The Cloud-Service RADAR was developed as a cooperation project funded by the DFG (2013-2016) including project partners from Technical Information Library (TIB), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, The Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry and the Steinbuch Center for Computing (SCC) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). 

RADAR started operations in March 2017. FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz-Institute for Informationinfrastructure now acts as a operator and contract partner. Three copies of the data in RADAR Cloud are stored at different geographical locations in the data centers of the Steinbuch Center for Computing (SCC) and in the Center for Information Services and High Performance Calculation (ZIH) at TU Dresden. Thus the data storage is subject to the legal provisions of the Federal Republic of Germany. TIB remains an important partner, and, as a DataCite member, is responsible for the allocation and registration of DOIs.

RADAR Funding Application (German)

RADAR Final Report (German)

Press Release (German) (16.03.2017)

Since the introduction of the new variants RADAR Hybrid and RADAR Local in 2021, own IT resources can be integrated into RADAR.

With RADAR Hybrid, using institutions can store their research data in their own archive with the help of the hosted RADAR software. With RADAR Local, FIZ Karlsruhe operates the RADAR software on behalf of the using institution on its local IT infrastructure and using exclusively the institution's own storage systems.