Research Infrastructure Mapping | Connecting Facilities, Platforms, and Scientific Ecosystems with Foldercase

Understanding Research Infrastructures as Connected Systems

This illustrative use case describes how structural mapping could help infrastructure operators, research communities, and policymakers understand relationships between facilities, services, datasets, and participating institutions within complex research infrastructure ecosystems.

The following content illustrates structural and organizational mapping scenarios. Foldercase is not intended for processing confidential, operational, or sensitive personal data.

The Research Infrastructure Complexity Challenge

Modern research infrastructures combine physical facilities, digital platforms, datasets, and service providers across institutions and countries. Understanding how these elements relate to each other is essential for efficient access and coordination.

Distributed Infrastructure Ecosystems

Research infrastructures evolve as interconnected ecosystems involving operators, research communities, funding bodies, and technical platforms. These relationships often remain implicit or fragmented across documentation systems.

Limited Discoverability and Visibility

Researchers and policymakers may struggle to identify available facilities, services, or datasets due to decentralized information and inconsistent structural representations.

Structural Mapping of Infrastructure Networks

Foldercase explores how research infrastructures could be represented as connected structural networks, linking facilities, services, datasets, and institutions without replacing existing repositories or operational systems.

Connecting Facilities, Services, and Data Layers

Structural environments can reveal how experimental facilities, digital services, and data resources depend on each other, supporting planning, interoperability, and coordinated access models.

Long-Term Infrastructure Knowledge

Infrastructure knowledge often spans decades and multiple funding phases. Persistent structural mapping could preserve context, support strategic planning, and enable continuity beyond individual projects or operational cycles.

When Research Infrastructure Landscapes Become Complex

Complexity increases as research infrastructures grow into distributed environments combining physical facilities, digital platforms, service providers, and international user communities. Maintaining transparency across access models, responsibilities, and infrastructure components becomes increasingly challenging.

Foldercase can help infrastructure environments map structural relationships, improve visibility across infrastructure elements, and provide a shared reference model connecting institutions and services. Learn more about the structural approach on the Foldercase Concept Page.

Typical drivers of infrastructure complexity include:

Distributed research facilities operated across multiple institutions or countries
Interconnected physical, digital, and data-service components
Evolving access policies, governance frameworks, and funding structures
Long-term infrastructures spanning multiple operational and funding phases

Related Coordination Scenarios

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