Open Source Ecosystem Project Spotlight: GakuNin RDM

GakuNin RDM is a research data management (RDM) service provided by the National Institute of Informatics (NII) and designed to promote open science across universities and research institutions in Japan. Developed with sustained support from the Japanese government and funding agencies, the platform builds on the Open Science Framework (OSF)’s architecture, leveraging its features and framework to support national-scale research data management. In spring 2025, COS and NII announced a partnership to jointly advance open science infrastructure technologies, extending OSF’s capabilities while supporting the growing momentum for open research in Japan.

The GakuNin RDM team collaborates closely with university IT centers, libraries, and research administrators to support systematic research data management and reuse. From a governance perspective, the platform helps uphold research integrity and accountability, offering shared infrastructure that meets local institutions’ needs while aligning with global best practices.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program, subawarded by COS, the team is working to port GakuNin RDM’s key features into the latest OSF architecture. This work will enable wider reuse of features developed in Japan and ensure greater compatibility with the evolving OSF platform.

Screenshot of the GakuNin RDM homepage.

NII’s proposal focuses on building a new OSF add-on that enables direct, secure integration with Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Using GravyValet—an emerging access/authentication layer developed by COS—this integration will allow researchers to browse, download, and delete Azure-stored files right from the OSF UI. This production-grade, maintainable, and modular add-on emphasizes token-based security, real-time file operations, configurable storage accounts, institutional authentication, and full documentation and compliance support.

The integration is particularly important for researchers managing Amazon S3-compatible storage systems at the institutional level, helping streamline workflows and data integrity practices.

The current GakuNin RDM platform is based on a legacy version of OSF and includes many custom-developed features. POSE funding provided an opportunity for COS and GakuNin RDM to collaborate more closely, allowing these features to be ported and integrated into the latest OSF architecture.

“With the support of the POSE funding, we aim to port and integrate [Microsoft Azure Blob Storage] into the latest OSF architecture,” explained Yusuke Komiyama, an Associate Professor at NII who is part of the GakuNin RDM team.

 “This will allow the features developed in Japan to be returned to and reused by the OSF and broader open-source community. Our developers will also gain expertise in the latest OSF architecture, enabling future contributions to more advanced developments.”

As Komiyama shared, more than 185 universities and research institutions in Japan already utilize GakuNin RDM.

“We aim to deliver safer and more modern add-ons to them, while also contributing to the COS program as active members of the OSF open-source community,” he added.

As an initial milestone, the team is adapting their custom storage add-ons to work within the updated OSF infrastructure. These improvements will benefit both the Japanese user base and the broader OSF ecosystem, contributing to the development of sustainable, community-driven open infrastructure that meets the evolving needs of global research communities.