DiSSCo Prepare Deliverable D4.1 - The Cost Book for DiSSCo

Abstract

The European Research Infrastructure DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections) aims to digitally unify all European natural science assets, to ensure that collection data are easily findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). 170 institutions across more than 23 countries are involved in this ambitious objective of transforming a fragmented landscape of collections into an integrated knowledge base, enabling researchers to use and interconnect different collections. Research Infrastructure (hereinafter referred as to RI) cost calculation can be multifaceted and complex. DiSSCo is at the same time a central team and a coordinated network responsible for supplying the infrastructure’s services. The RI linked costs are spread all over Europe and are connected to thousands of people. As the extended DiSSCo perimeter encompasses a wide range of services - from physical access to digitisation on demand and consulting services - distributed among a great number of partners, cost information is significantly decentralised. The first “centralised” cost calculation leads to the following results: • The DiSSCo Central Hub office would need a minimum annual budget of €M 1.4 to be operational. This would not change between the construction and the operation phases. • The DiSSCo Central Hub IT team would need a budget of €M 2.2 to finalise all IT system under the construction phase (if the construction phase lasts two years, it would cost around €M 1.1 per year) in order to develop the digital services that will facilitate access to NSC data. The annual cost to operate these services would be around €M 1.2 per year. This budget will evolve according to funding opportunities, the enlargement of the membership and the implementation of a business model open to new sources of income. As it is often the case, research infrastructures grow over time and the more DiSSCo will be known and recognised, the more it will attract users, and the more its budget will increase. In order to calculate the RI linked costs, which are spread all over Europe, T4.1 developed a cost calculation methodology that has been distributed among all the 170 DiSSCo partner institutions. 27 institutions responded to the exercise. It allows for a first shared understanding on how to calculate DiSSCo related costs. It also provides the first figures on a cost per hour or a cost per service. It opens the door for a pricing under the realm of DiSSCo. Finally, such a methodology also aims at guaranteeing a fair service pricing based on the same principles and variables.