Our data model in detail

The work on our data model and identifiers has been informed by working with international partners in adopting a new standard for persistent identifiers for instruments. (PIDINST)

Our data model contains five sections:

Description
Details
Access
Relations
Funding

If you want the service to assign a DataCite Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for equipment records, then these mandatory fields must be completed:

1.2 Internal record ID
1.4 Name
1.5 Description
2.1 Manufacturer

You can publish records you upload from a file or through API integration without the description or manufacturer, but you will not be able to request DOIs for those records until all the mandatory fields are completed. We will not assign DOIs for records with existing DOIs or for facility records.

Download the spreadsheet template and data model guidance.

See how our data model maps to DataCite, PIDINST, Pure Equipment Module and Kit-Catalogue.

1. Description

No	Field	Applies to	Obligation	Occurence	Definition	Allowed values, constraints and remarks
1.1	Type	Equipment Facility	Optionaly	No value - 1 value	Specifies whether the item is a piece of equipment or a facility.	If left blank, the system assumes this record is for a piece of equipment.
1.2	Internal record ID	Equipment Facility	Mandatory	1 value	A unique identifier for the record within the institution. If you want to assign a DOI for a record, this must be filled in. If you have an existing DOI, you will still need to provide an internal record ID. If you don't have an internal record ID for this record, you can add the same DOI as 1.3 here to act as the internal record ID. Alternatively, you can use the stem of the existing DOI here to act as the internal ID (e.g. /267). Make sure the internal record IDs are the same as your system's.	String or URL.
1.3	Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	Equipment	Optional	No value - 1 value	If you have an existing DOI, put this here. If you want us to assign a DOI for a record, leave this blank and ensure all mandatory fields (1.2, 1.4, 1.5 and 2.1) are completed for us to assign a DOI. Please note 2.1 - Manufacturer is only mandatory for equipment-type records.	URL (e.g. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxx) String: 10.xxxx/xxx
1.4	Name	Equipment Facility	Mandatory	1 value	The name by which the equipment or facility is known.	Free text
1.5	Description	Equipment Facility	Mandatory for DOI requests	No value - 1 value	A description (such as use cases for capabilities) of the equipment or facility. These questions can help you to create a great description: - How is this equipment / facility operated? - What can the equipment / facility do? - Who may want to use it? - How many users access it? - What problems could it help solve? - Are support and expertise available to operate it? - What format is the data it produces available in?	Free text

2. Details

No	Field	Applies to	Obligation	Occurence range	Definition	Allowed values, constraints and remarks
2.1	Manufacturer	Equipment	Mandatory for DOI requests	No value - single value	The manufacturer or developer of the equipment. This may be an institution for custom-built equipment. If you want a DOI for this record, this must be completed.	Free text
2.1.1	Manufacturer ID	Equipment	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique identifier for the manufacturer.	Free text, should be a globally unique ID.
2.2	Model	Equipment	Optional	No value - single value	The model name or type of the equipment.	Free text
2.2.1	Model ID	Equipment	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique identifier for the model.	Free text, should be a globally unique ID.
2.3	Commissioned date	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The date when the equipment or facility was commissioned.	Date ISO 8601. Please provide a valid date in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD
2.4	Decommissioned date	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The date when the equipment or facility was decommissioned.	Date ISO 8601. Please provide a valid date in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD
2.5	Measured variables	Equipment	Optional	No value - unlimited	Refers to the specific quantities or attributes that a piece of equipment is designed to measure or observe such as temperature, pressure or humidity.	Free text
2.6	Relevant subject	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	The subjects relevant to the equipment or facility as defined by the institution.	Free text
2.7	InfraPortal discipline	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	The discipline relevant to the equipment or facility as defined by the UKRI Infraportal.	Controlled vocabulary. InfraPortal disciplines: - Biological Sciences, Health & Food - E-infrastructure & Data - Energy - Environment - Physical Sciences & Engineering - Public Policy or Delivering Public Services - Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities

3. Access

No	Field	Applies to	Obligation	Occurence range	Definition	Allowed values, constraints and remarks
3.1	Contact name	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The full name of the contact person.	Free text
3.1.1	Contact ID	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique ID for the contact person, preferably the full ORCID link.	Free text, should be a globally unique ID, preferably ORCID.
3.2	Contact email	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The email address for enquiries, preferably a shared mailbox.	Email address, preferably shared mailbox.
3.3	Managing department	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The name of the department managing the equipment or facility	Free text
3.3.1	Managing department ID	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique ID for the managing department	Free text, should be a globally unique ID.
3.4	Managing facility	Equipment	Optional	No value - unlimited	The name of the facility managing the equipment or facility.	Free text
3.4.1	Managing facility ID	Equipment	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique ID for the managing facility, preferably ROR.	Free text, should be a globally unique ID (preferably ROR) link. If you don't have a ROR ID, you can request one from ROR.
3.5	Location	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The geographical location of the equipment or facility (e.g. address or building).	Free text.
3.6	Postcode	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The postcode of the equipment or facility.	UK postcode
3.7	Access	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The access information about the equipment or facility. This may include whether it can be accessed remotely, by internal or external staff, and whether an application, screening, security clearance or training is needed.	Free text

4. Relations

No	Field	Applies to	Obligation	Occurence range	Definition	Allowed values, constraints and remarks
4.1	Photo link	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	A link to photographs of the equipment or facility.	URL
4.2	Web page link	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	A link to web pages related to equipment or facility.	URL
4.3	Research outputs	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	If there is a DOI for this record, we will populate the references on the record pages.	ARK, arXiv, bibcode, DOI, EAN13, EISSN, Handle, IGSN, ISBN, ISSN, ISTC, LISSN, PMID, PURL, RAiD, RRID, UPC, URL, URN, w3id
4.4	Documentation link	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	A link to documentation related to the equipment or facility.	URL
4.5	Related information link	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	A link to other related information. Do not use an existing equipment DOI in this field. For an existing equipment DOI, see 1.2 and 1.3.	URL
4.6	Related services	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - unlimited	A link to related services. This might be a link to a service that manages the scheduling and booking.	URL

5. Funding

No	Field	Applies to	Obligation	Occurence range	Definition	Allowed values, constraints and remarks
5.1	Main funder	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The name of the main organisation that funded the equipment or facility.	Free text
5.1.1	Main funder ID	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique ID for the main funder (preferably ROR).	Free text, should be a globally unique ID (preferably ROR).
5.2	Award name	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The name of the funding award.	Free text
5.2.1	Award ID	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	A globally unique ID for the funding award such as a grant number.	Free text, should be a globally unique ID, could be a grant number.
5.3	Award date	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	The date the funding was awarded.	Date ISO 8601. Please provide a valid date in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD.
5.4	UKRI funding over reporting threshold	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	Indicates whether the equipment or facility was at least partly funded by the UKRI and its value at purchase was over the UKRI reporting threshold.	Yes/No
5.5	Additional funding information	Equipment Facility	Optional	No value - single value	Add any other funding information sucha s other funding sources.	Free text