Our colleague, Zoltán Kanász-Nagy, had the opportunity to present at the ARP Annual Conference on October 8, 2025, during the morning session, regarding the InvenioRDM-based data repository recently completed for the University of Szeged (SZTE).
In the event’s opening speech, Katalin Sebők from the HUN-REN Headquarters stated that they consider openness and the exploration of best practices regarding data repositories to be of great importance. It is also commendable that a data steward community appears to be forming in the country, in which HUN-REN’s organizational work regarding the Data Steward Network and its regular events play a vital role.
In the second half of the greetings, Judit Gárdos, a staff member of the ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, reviewed the past four years of the development of research data management in Hungary. She highlighted that 22 data stewards are currently working in the HUN-REN data steward network, for whom internal training has been developed. These specialists interviewed more than 200 researchers, partly motivated by the strive to build community and personal connections, as in this constantly changing world, a relationship of trust can provide a kind of stability.
Following this, our colleague Zoltán Kanász-Nagy presented some “behind-the-scenes” secrets of SZTE’s new InvenioRDM-based data repository: his presentation focused on the technical solutions providing framework customization and unique features. InvenioRDM is an open-source repository framework developed by CERN, specialized for research data, compliant with FAIR principles, and based on Python and React. Its advantages include supporting both DataCite DOI integration (allowing the creation of a DOI simultaneously with the item upload) and the use of the open Research Organization Registry (ROR) database (which facilitates the entry of funding data). Additionally, it is capable of OAI-PMH connection, version control of uploaded files, and even displaying previews of zipped folders. Significant effort had to be invested in the framework to develop permission management suitable for SZTE, adjust the appearance to the institutional identity, and implement Azure-supported SSO login. Unique solutions were created for fine-tuning forms by scientific field, and a custom tool was developed to support future form editing. The user interface was not yet available in Hungarian, so the Hungarian translation was completed using the Transifex tool through the collaboration of our company and university staff, which has also been made available to the domestic community.
In the next presentation, Szabolcs Hoczopán from SZTE spoke about the first experiences of the implementation. He stated that the system has been live since September 2025, while the previous test system remained as a ‘sandbox’. After the start of use, as is typical, a few bugs and requirements emerged, but these were successfully managed together with the development company. Based on initial lessons learned, the login and upload options were given extra prominence on the interface, as these were not as emphasized in the base system. A continuously updated guide on using the system was also prepared for users. Their long-term ambition with the data repository is that, having fulfilled the requests shown in their needs assessment through its creation, it should also become part of the European data repository infrastructure.
As the next speaker, László Kovács, a staff member of SZTAKI and ARP, spoke about the future and development directions of ARP, including their experiments involving the use of AI.
Balázs Horváth, a staff member of the HCSO (KSH), presented the statistical library’s search for its future role, given that some European Union countries have abolished or are planning to abolish their statistical libraries.
János Mohácsi, from Pro-M, gave a presentation on interoperability between research infrastructures, various identity management services, and their technical solutions.
