Repository Resilience

How resilient are the repositories you support or access?

From outages to natural disasters and funding or personnel changes, disruptions can happen at any time. The Repository Crisis Scorecards (RCS) project empowers the community to assess repository resilience and understand the impacts of potential disruptions.

Let’s build stronger systems together. Join us!

Evaluate Repository Resilience

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About The Project

Building Resilience of Data Repositories During Periods of Crisis

This project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is dedicated to generating crucial insights into how disruptions in data access affect researchers, data managers, and community response efforts.

The project aims to:

Improve and expand the Repository Crisis Scorecards tool to better assess preparedness and impact
Gather community insights on data disruptions and resilience strategies through surveys and focus groups
Publish a white paper with key findings and actionable recommendations to strengthen repository resilience across the research ecosystem

Opportunities to Engage

We welcome all forms of engagement, big or small. You can participate in as many, or as few, of the activities below as you would like. Every contribution helps us better understand repository resilience and strengthens this community-driven effort.

Get Connected

Let us know how you’d like to engage with the project. The interest form allows you to join the mailing list, indicate interest in the data survey or focus groups, or simply stay informed. Completing the form is not a commitment—it’s just a way to stay connected and hear about upcoming opportunities.

Complete the Interest Form

Evaluate Your Repository’s Resilience

Take the 20–30 minute RCS survey to assess repository resilience across four disruption scenarios. Your results can support internal planning and funding justification, and they contribute to a broader understanding of resilience across the community.

Stipends Available

Start the RCS Assessment

Improve the RCS

If you’ve completed the RCS, we’d love your feedback. Your insights will help us improve the tools and ensure they are useful across a range of repository contexts. This form also includes the option to request a small stipend.

Submit Feedback & Request Stipend

Share Your Experience

Share your experiences with data access disruptions, recovery processes, and resilience strategies. Your responses help us understand the real-world impacts of disruptions across the research ecosystem.

Take the Survey

Join a Focus Group

Prefer to talk through your experience? Sign up to join a small focus group where we’ll discuss data access disruptions and strategies for recovery. Focus groups will be scheduled through our mailing list based on your availability and interest.

Stipends Available

Complete the Interest Form

Why

How Your Participation Makes a Difference

Data repositories are essential to research, discovery, and community decision-making; but they face increasing risks. By participating in the Repository Crisis Scorecards (RCS) project, you help address these challenges and strengthen the systems we all rely on. Your involvement supports both your own repository or work and the broader research ecosystem.

Benefits for you and your organization:

Identify strengths and vulnerabilities in repository operations
Inform risk planning, policy development, and investment priorities
Strengthen funding and proposal narratives with evidence-based insights
Receive a report to support internal conversations and decision-making

Benefits to the broader community:

Contribute to a clearer understanding of how disruptions actually unfold
Surface common challenges that cut across institutions
Build a more accurate, community-informed picture of repository resilience
Real-world strategies for data recovery and resilience
Support the development of stronger, more equitable data infrastructure

Together, we can build the resilient systems needed to ensure that the data we rely on today will remain accessible, trustworthy, and recoverable in the future.

Learn More

Data Privacy Policy

RCS on Zenodo