Teagasc Launch Open Data Portal

Beidh leagan Gaeilge den mhír seo ar fáil go luath.

Teagasc recently launched their own Open Data Portal, supporting the publication and reuse of data generated across its research activities. The platform provides access to datasets spanning agriculture, food, environmental science, and the rural economy, and is designed to improve discoverability and accessibility of research outputs.

Teagasc – the Agriculture and Food Development Authority – is the national body providing integrated research, advisory and training services to the agriculture and food industry and rural communities. 

The portal reflects wider EU and national efforts to improve access to public sector data, supporting transparency and efficiency, and enabling greater reuse of data for innovation, research and public service delivery. Dr. John Hyland, Data Value Platform Manager at Teagasc, writes:

In modern agri-food research, data are everywhere. From field trials and environmental monitoring to socio-economic surveys and laboratory experiments, large and diverse datasets are continuously generated. Yet, in many research organisations, such data are distributed across institutional storage infrastructures, including networked servers and cloud-based platforms, and are typically confined to closed, access-restricted environments. Therefore, making them difficult to discover, access, and reuse. This challenge is not unique to agricultural research, but it is increasingly recognised as a barrier to collaboration, innovation, and the full realisation of research value. 

Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority in Ireland, is the national body responsible for providing integrated research, advisory, and training services to the agriculture and food industry, as well as rural communities. Its mission is to support science-based innovation that underpins profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability across the agri-food sector and wider bioeconomy. Given the scale and diversity of its research activities, spanning animal and grassland systems, crops and environmental science, food research, and rural economy, Teagasc generates and manages a vast amount of research data. Recognising both the opportunity and the responsibility this presents, Teagasc has begun to take a more structured and strategic approach to how its data are understood, managed, and shared. Teagasc has established the Teagasc Open Data Portal (opendata.teagasc.ie) to facilitate the dissemination and reuse of data generated through its research activities.  

The development of this platform was undertaken in collaboration with Derilinx, utilising the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) Technical Services Framework for Open Data and Data Management. The Open Data Portal has been designed to enable the publication and reuse of research data, thereby enhancing transparency, supporting scientific innovation, and contributing to evidence-based decision-making across agricultural and rural systems. In doing so, the initiative aligns with Ireland’s Open Data Strategy, which promotes the use of data to deliver economic, social, and environmental benefits. The platform is built on datAdore, a data sharing solution developed by Derilinx, which supports both public-facing open data portals and internal data sharing environments. In addition to the external portal, Teagasc has implemented an internal data catalogue accessible via its organisational network. This catalogue provides a centralised mechanism for documenting and discovering datasets across departments and business units, thereby facilitating internal collaboration and data visibility. The Teagasc Open Data Platform is linked to Ireland’s Open Data Platform (data.gov.ie). Thereby, enabling wider dissemination and reuse of Teagasc research data. 

A number of custom features have been incorporated to support the specific requirements of research data management. These include the development of extended metadata fields tailored to research contexts, such as links to dataset authors, associated publications, and project funders. The platform also supports the assignment of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to datasets, ensuring their long-term accessibility, citability, and traceability within the scientific record. Further functionality includes the ability to download complete datasets as consolidated zip files, thereby simplifying access and distribution compared to the retrieval of individual resources. In addition, the classification structure of the portal has been customised to reflect Teagasc’s organisational context, replacing generic categories with “Teagasc Departments” and “Programmes.” This provides users with a clearer and more intuitive understanding of the institutional structure and research landscape. 

The launch of the Teagasc Open Data Portal represents a significant advancement in the organisation’s approach to research data management and open science. It will play a central role in the implementation of the FAIR principles by ensuring that Teagasc research data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, which are widely recognised as a cornerstone of open science and collaborative research. More broadly, the initiative reinforces Teagasc’s commitment to innovation, transparency, collaboration, and sustainability within the agri-food sector and rural economy. 

Dr. John Hyland, Data Value Platform Manager, Teagasc

To learn more about the technical features of the portal, please read Derilinx's blog post about the Launch of the Teagasc Portal here.