Research with complex scientific and technical infrastructures such as particle accelerators, satellites or research vessels generates a high volume of digital research data. This data is of central importance for the reproducibility and traceability of scientific results.

In addition to the prevalent advantages of PIDs, such as permanent and unique identification, they facilitate the accurate and reliable citation of research data and thus promote transparency, reproducibility and collaboration within the research community. Furthermore, proper citation of research data is crucial to recognise and reward researchers' efforts in more than just text publications.

PIDs are automatically assigned in many data repositories when research data is published. Which repositories use which PIDs can be viewed at re3data.org. Often, DOIs from DataCite are used, or URNs or ARKs. But PURL and ePIC handles also have their areas of application.

An online seminar on PIDs for research data took place on 15 February 2024. The summary of the discussions and the presentations can be viewed here.