Crossref Grant Linking System: enabling transparent and comprehensive research evaluation through open funding metadata

Abstract

Research evaluation increasingly demands comprehensive, transparent, and interoperable data infrastructures that can accurately track the full lifecycle of research activities from funding to outputs. While the scholarly community has successfully established persistent identifiers for research outputs (DOIs), researchers (ORCID), and institutions (ROR), a persistent way to identify and link funding information was lacking until recently. This limitation has impeded institutions and funders from effectively measuring research impact, demonstrating value for investment, and supporting responsible research assessment practices.

The Crossref Grant Linking System (GLS), launched in 2019, addresses this infrastructure gap by providing funders with a mechanism to register open, persistent, and interoperable metadata about their grants and awards. As Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) serve as central repositories for institutional research information and play key roles in research evaluation and assessment, the integration of GLS data represents a significant opportunity to enhance evaluation practices aligned with principles articulated in the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).

Related items
Presentation and extended abstract

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{gaudioso_pedraza2026,
  author = {Gaudioso Pedraza, Rocío and Montilla, Luis},
  title = {Crossref {Grant} {Linking} {System:} Enabling Transparent and
    Comprehensive Research Evaluation Through Open Funding Metadata},
  date = {2026-05-20},
  url = {https://www.luismmontilla.com/events/saomiguel2026/},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {Research evaluation increasingly demands comprehensive,
    transparent, and interoperable data infrastructures that can
    accurately track the full lifecycle of research activities from
    funding to outputs. While the scholarly community has successfully
    established persistent identifiers for research outputs (DOIs),
    researchers (ORCID), and institutions (ROR), a persistent way to
    identify and link funding information was lacking until recently.
    This limitation has impeded institutions and funders from
    effectively measuring research impact, demonstrating value for
    investment, and supporting responsible research assessment
    practices. The Crossref Grant Linking System (GLS), launched in
    2019, addresses this infrastructure gap by providing funders with a
    mechanism to register open, persistent, and interoperable metadata
    about their grants and awards. As Current Research Information
    Systems (CRIS) serve as central repositories for institutional
    research information and play key roles in research evaluation and
    assessment, the integration of GLS data represents a significant
    opportunity to enhance evaluation practices aligned with principles
    articulated in the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research
    Information and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment
    (CoARA).}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Gaudioso Pedraza, Rocío, and Luis Montilla. 2026. “Crossref Grant Linking System: Enabling Transparent and Comprehensive Research Evaluation Through Open Funding Metadata.” EUROCris 2026, May 20. https://www.luismmontilla.com/events/saomiguel2026/.