Our partnership with the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences shows what emerges when information science meets software engineering. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we've created platforms that make complex scientific research accessible to researchers and decision-makers worldwide.
We spoke with Dr. Sándor Soós about how this collaboration started during a global crisis, the knowledge mapping projects we've built together, and our shared vision for transforming scientific communication.
When and how did the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA KIK) establish contact with Pro-Sharp? Who initiated the collaboration?
We have been in contact with Pro-Sharp since the outbreak of COVID-19, when our first joint project was launched. The outcome of this work was the COVID-19 Science Map platform covidscimap.org, which visualizes and connects global COVID-related research to help researchers and decision-makers navigate the vast body of publications. The idea came up in a conversation where it quickly became clear that our expertise in information science and their IT know-how could complement each other very well.
What circumstances and motivations led to this partnership?
The partnership was really driven by the information gap around COVID-19. There was a strong need to organize knowledge for researchers and decision-makers. MTA KIK provided the information science and bibliometric expertise, while Pro-Sharp translated these methods into working software solutions and made the COVID-related knowledge accessible. Their engineering capacity allowed the research results to be implemented effectively and used by the scientific community and decision-makers.
In which specific projects has MTA KIK collaborated with Pro-Sharp? What are the most important areas of cooperation in this partnership for your Institute?
Beyond the COVID-19 mapping project, we have worked together on initiatives such as exploring the situation of women in anti-doping science https://womeninantidoping.com/home, examining values in sport https://www.valuesinsport.com/home, and preparing several EU project proposals. In each of these, MTA KIK contributes the science mapping and bibliometric methods, and Pro-Sharp develops the IT tools and platforms needed for implementation. For us, the most important part of the partnership is exactly this combination: theory and methodology on one side, strong software implementation on the other.
How does MTA KIK evaluate the current collaboration with Pro-Sharp? In which directions would you like to develop this partnership, and what new opportunities do you see in the future?
We highly value the collaboration with Pro-Sharp, as their IT expertise has enabled us to bring our bibliometric and information science methods into practical applications. In the future, we would like to extend this partnership to more international projects, especially EU collaborations where handling large datasets and building robust platforms are crucial. We also see chances to apply this model in other fields beyond health and sport, always combining our science mapping expertise with Pro-Sharp’s software engineering capacity. Looking ahead, we are especially keen to explore innovative methods for processing scientific texts, which we believe will open exciting new directions for our joint work.