As of November 2025, ARP (Adatrepozitórium Platform/Data Repository Platform) is celebrating its fourth-year anniversary. During these four years we have hit several milestones and what started out as a project is now both an infrastructure and a community, with hundreds of users and members growing in number by the day.

The original vision of a data repository serving primarily the HUN-REN (Hungarian Research Network) was conceived and introduced to the HUN-REN HQ (then ELKH Secretariat) by the HUN-REN Institute for Computer Science and Control, the ELTE Social Science Research Centre (at the time HUN-REN CSS), and the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics. All three institutions have tasks and responsibilities tailored to their backgrounds, different types of resources (e.g. knowledge, expert networks) and unique strengths.

The HUN-REN Data Repository Platform (HUN-REN ARP) launched in March (beta) / November (alpha) 2024. The infrastructure consists of four interrelated, but separate services:  ARP Data Repository, ARP AROMA for metadata and RO-crate management, ARP Schema Registry, and ARP Federated Search. All components have been developed and set up as well as operated since the very beginning by the Department of Distributed Systems (DSD) at HUN-REN SZTAKI (Institute for Computer Science and Control).

 

 

The fundamental aim of the ARP infrastructure is to facilitate the visibility and reusability of research data originating in a wide range of disciplines. Its services aim to make the results of individual data collections findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). By providing long-term and secure (georedundant, with an optional copy made to magnetic tape) ARP not only supports research in the present but also ensures the preservation of research materials representing great value for future generations of scientists.

Regarding this infrastructure and the surrounding community of scientists, data stewards and other repository experts, one of the key tasks of RDC CSS is to be the ‘human pillar’ of the project. Our daily work revolves around disseminating knowledge about the use of data repositories, open science and modern data management principles, establishing the necessary data management policies and in the research institutions of HUN-REN, and introducing domestic and international data and metadata management and storage standards and recommendations, thus enabling the establishment of FAIR data repository culture within HUN-REN's network.

The creation of a state-of-the-art domestic research data infrastructure will facilitate Hungary’s involvement in European initiatives with similar objectives such as the pan-European research infrastructure EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) at an institutional, technological, and direct data link level.

For the time being, the ARP Data Repository provides deposition services to the HUN-REN research network and the Hungarian higher education institutions. However, the research data hosted in the Data Repository is accessible to a wider audience, including the national and international research community, higher education and the competitive sector, as well as the public, and we are in continuous expansion regarding who we provide our services to.

From the official website of HUN-REN ARP it is easy to navigate to all four service components. As of November 2025, ARP Data Repository hosts 209 dataverses, 137 datasets, and 34,193 files (statistics of published research data). There are currently 53 organisations/institutions, 43 departments, 66 research groups, 30 research projects.