RAT 2: Further development, integration, and conversion to permanency of the Result Assessment Tool (RAT) research software

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dirk Lewandowski
• Subject Area: Data Management, Data-Intensive Systems, Computer Science Methods in Business Informatics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 557366357

Result Assessment Tool (RAT) is a modular, web-based research software toolkit that can be used to design and conduct studies based on the results of various search systems (for example, search engines, e-commerce search systems, and library search systems). In this project, RAT will be further developed, integrated into the ecosystem of relevant research software, and made permanently available. The project has five sub-goals: (1) extending the software based on new technological developments, (2) improving IT and data security, (3) integrating RAT into the ecosystem of relevant research software, (4) expanding and strengthening the user and developer communities, and (5) sustainability and perpetuation. Sub-objectives (1) and (2) concern the technical development of RAT. On the one hand, the software's flexibility will be further increased. RAT will be expanded to include functionalities for evaluating responses from generative language models and for measuring localization and personalization. On the other hand, the IT and data security of RAT will be professionalized while guaranteeing data protection regulations, thus securing the system against external attacks. Regarding sub-goal (3), the software will be integrated into the ecosystem of relevant research software to further popularize RAT, address additional scientific communities, and allow for seamless integration into the researchers' working environments. Research software platforms in which RAT shall be integrated cover platforms for participant recruitment, distributed data collection, and data analysis and visualization. The perpetuation of RAT is realized through sub-goals (4) and (5). We will expand the existing user and developer communities in a targeted manner. This will ensure that the community needs are addressed in further development and promote the sustainability of the project, as RAT components developed by the community will be made available to other community members. Annual community meetings, regional workshops, and individual events are organized to maintain the community. The software is transferred into the community to ensure that RAT is continued and supported by the community after the funding period. A development fund is set up to finance further developments.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)