Research & Development

Owing to the nature of its mission, DANS has a number of specialised R&D staff members among its ranks. They seek, often in conjunction with project partners, solutions to problems concerning storage, access and traceability of data. They can also put their expertise at your disposal or at that of your research institution.

DANS carries out ICT activities for various research projects. This often necessitates the engagement of ICT experts from renowned software agencies. Fees are agreed on a project basis, depending on the financing options and the opportunities that arise. DANS guarantees that the projects will be carried out thoroughly, using the newest technologies and insights and that the software is open source and maintainable. This guarantee is confirmed by international reviews of software designed by DANS.
DANS can also take responsibility for further maintenance of the software it has developed as well as managing the services resulting from the software.

R&D staff members research new technologies and assess their importance for DANS’ field of activity. They investigate the wishes of researchers with respect to the use of research data. They advise on new technological applications and sometimes align these nationally, as in the case of persistent identifiers, the permanent internet addresses. They can also give support in writing project applications or independently carry out parts of projects.

The development team at DANS usually ensures that everything is tailor made. They link pieces of code to each other and set them in a clear and low maintenance framework (Spring and/or Eclipse). The final result is therefore always a new open source application. These applications are usually developed in Java, but the use of PHP, XSLT and JavaScript/AJAX also occurs.

Information:
Dr. H. Harmsen - Deputy Director T +31 6 3042 0605 E henk.harmsen at dans.knaw.nl