Every time a research information system is implemented in an academic
institution there is a need to adjust the software to local needs. If a
system has its roots in a different country, the adjustments can be more
comprehensive. In this case, the VIVO ontology and a lot of the
underlying assumptions, which are based on the realities of the US
scholarly landscape, must be “tailored” to be able to depict “German”
academic reality. The differences concern both the meaning of the
translated terms and the usage of the terms in the common parlance. The
prominent examples for such kind of terms are grants and faculties.
‘Grant’ is an essential concept to describe the funding of research
projects. Universities are divided into colleges and schools. The
concepts for the description of research funding in Germany are
completely different, and universities are usually divided into
‘Fakultäten’ and ‘Lehrstühle’. Furthermore, terms like ‘faculty’, or
‘grant’ are not being used consistently in German academic institutions.
On the other hand some concepts which are important for representing
the German academic landscape are missing in the VIVO Ontology. There
are ongoing efforts to add missing classes and properties. The extension
of the VIVO ontology with concepts as universal and interoperable as
possible, and which are typical for Germany also requires broad
agreement between German VIVO applicants. Due to the above mentioned
issues, it was necessary, that, actors from different German
institutions build a network to collaborate on these problems. This
collaboration takes place in a number of working groups, calls and on
GitHub. It has been resulted in a general ontology extension (VIVO-DE)
and several drafts of the translation of the VIVO Ontology. Another
common task is the translation of the VIVO application files into German
and the constant updating of this translation with every new VIVO
version. The 'Kerndatensatz Forschung' (The Research Core Dataset - a
data model for research reporting) as an extension of the VIVO Ontology
is one of the current tasks, which is collaborated on as well. This talk
concerns the challenges, efforts and tools of the German VIVO community
to address the described issues.