PIDsLink-NG - Nigeria's research, identified at home and connected to the world

PIDsLink-NG aims to make Nigerian research easier to find and preserve by giving institutions a locally governed way to assign persistent identifiers. Its core identifier is the ARK, which can be used alongside DOIs, ORCID iDs, and ROR IDs. The service is already running through WACREN: institutions can mint ARKs individually or in bulk, connect repositories and publishing platforms through APIs, and resolve identifiers globally through N2T.net. A federated model lets each institution own its namespace, while national and regional partners coordinate governance, technical support, and integration.

The presentation describes a national rollout led by the Open Access Coordination Council and the National Library of Nigeria, with universities, publishers, WACREN, and funders such as TETFund taking defined roles. Early demonstrations include the National Library repository, BookHub, NOUN, and Eko-Konnect; the plan is to expand integrations, publish a national playbook, and share the approach with other African countries. It calls on universities to register namespaces and appoint campus leads, publishers to use the service, researchers to link ORCID iDs to their work, and funders and regulators to require persistent identifiers in funded and accredited research.