The information portal for academic research infrastructures lists institutions and platforms of all kinds that provide researchers with resources and services for research projects. A research infrastructure may be a single location or a group of distributed institutions, which may form part of a national or international network. The term 'research infrastructure' covers many things, from dedicated facilities and analytical services to information infrastructures such as libraries, data repositories, open access repositories and virtual research environments.

The portal includes research infrastructures which

• offer recognised scientific and technological facilities or services
• permit access through a transparent selection process based on scientific quality and project feasibility
• deploy sustainable management practices.

These general conditions can also be found in the guidelines for research infrastructures published by the DFG.

They aim to make more efficient use of existing resources, provide external users with access to the technologies or sources of information they need and offer professional support from the institutions. For example for data analysis or learning new techniques. The portal also provides a general overview of research infrastructures at German and in some cases also international academic institutes.

Research infrastructures wanting to be included in the portal can register with the DFG. The DFG will check their details against the above criteria and then decide whether they can be included or not. Since the DFG is also supporting the establishment of the European MERIL database, we will recommend that data is also archived here where appropriate.

• Portal for research infrastructures: RIsources
• Go to registration form (available only in german)
• DFG guidelines on requirements of research infrastructures
• Guidelines on rules for users (available only in german)
• About the European research infrastructure database (MERIL)