PCG ACADEMIA
AS A LIVING REPOSITORY
Integrating low-code platforms to drive research workflows.
MAŁGORZATA PASZKOWSKA
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
WHO WE ARE
Boston roots. A Polish DSpace team.
1986
Public Consulting Group
Founded in Boston.
Serving all 50 U.S. states.
2010
PCG Academia
Polish team.
European implementations.
Platinum DSpace
Service Provider
INSTITUTIONS
WE WORK WITH
The DSpace story grew in Poland — and now comes back to Boston.
AGENDA
01
Problem and context
Bigger universities, disconnected systems.
02
Real use cases
Faculty review and research project management.
03
DSpace + low-code: how to do it
Architecture and metadata.
04
Lessons learned
What it means for the DSpace owner.
PCG ACADEMIA
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
01
Problem and context
Bigger universities, disconnected systems.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
SOUNDS FAMILIAR?
SYMPTOMS
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
THE ROOT CAUSE
SOPHISTICATED. HIGHLY ADVANCED. ENGAGING. MATURE. MISSION-CRITICAL. WELL-MAINTAINED.
+ EXPENSIVE
Systems that just don’t talk to each other.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
THE STAKES
Data is the currency of research.
Knowledge is power only when it is in order.
More units, more data
Every faculty, lab and centre
keeps its own copy of the facts.
U.S. universities spent $117.7B
on R&D in FY 2024.
Every dollar leaves a data trail.
More mandates
Federal funders: publications
and data public with no embargo
(OSTP 2022; NIH from 2025).
Data sharing plans as a funding
condition.
Plus annual faculty reviews and
tenure dossiers.
Real consequences
Missed mandates: delayed NIH
continuation awards, weaker
future funding applications.
Inside the university: gaps in
tenure dossiers, reports and
rankings.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
Low-code is already on campus
WHY NOW
60%
of software organizations
will use low-code as their main
development platform by 2028.*
*Gartner forecast, up from 10% in
2024.
Harvard University
HUIT · ROBOTIC PROCESS
AUTOMATION (RPA)
A dedicated
automation team
HR, finance and research
administration.
Cornell University
POWER AUTOMATE
5–7 hrs to 15 min
Weekly HR onboarding
work.
University of
Queensland
BONITA BPM
94% less time
to handle a request,
across 30+ processes.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
Low-code: building applications by configuring forms, rules and workflows visually, with little hand-written code.
Faster to build · Easier to change · Shaped by the people who run the process · Connects to existing systems through APIs
FINANCE & HR
Finance
Budgets
E-procurement
Employee portal
Faculty evaluation
EDUCATION
Digital student file
Student requests
Scholarships
Graduation
E-diplomas
SCIENCE
Publishing strategy
Research projects
Grants
Equipment and labs
Staff evaluation
REFRAME
*The more entities DSpace holds, the more processes it can feed.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
DSPACE
PEOPLE · PROJECTS · FUNDING · EQUIPMENT · OUTPUTS*
HR PROCESSES
In LOW-CODE
employment, department
FACULTY REVIEW
in LOW-CODE
outputs, metrics
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
team, expertise, equipment
ANY DATA-HUNGRY SYSTEM
open-access funding, tech transfer, reporting
PCG ACADEMIA
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
02
Real use cases
Faculty review and research project management.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
Two use cases, two directions
USE CASES
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
USE CASE 01
Faculty performance review
Faculty member reports research output; the chair assesses it; the Vice Provost for Research signs off.
DSPACE
LOW-CODE
PLATFORM
DSpace is the source
READ FROM DSPACE
▪ Publications and other outputs
▪ Citation metrics
▪ ORCID and Scopus author IDs
▪ Grants and projects
USE CASE 02
Research project management
A funded project from start to close: team, tasks, budget, milestones and deliverables.
DSPACE
LOW-CODE
PLATFORM
DSpace is the source and the destination
PULLED AT THE START
PUSHED AT THE CLOSE
▪ Researcher profiles
▪ Expertise areas
▪ Publication history
▪ Equipment
▪ Project metadata
▪ Related outputs
▪ Identifier and URI
Faculty review: One person, two systems
USE CASE 01
The review form reads the author profile from DSpace. Nothing is re-typed.
AUTHOR PROFILE IN DSPACE
THE SAME AUTHOR IN THE LOW-CODE PLATFORM
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
Faculty review: What the reviewer sees
USE CASE 01
REVIEW FORM · LOW-CODE PLATFORM
Publications, metrics and grants pulled from DSpace.
Faculty focus on the review, not on hunting for data.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
THE ROLE OF DSPACE
The authoritative source of truth for a critical university process.
Review outcomes feed promotion, reappointment and merit decisions.
Project management: One project, two systems
USE CASE 02
DSpace stops lagging behind university life: it learns about new projects while they run, not years later.
THE PROJECT IN THE LOW-CODE PLATFORM
THE SAME PROJECT IN DSPACE
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
PCG ACADEMIA
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
03
DSpace + low-code: how to do it
Architecture and metadata.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
ARCHITECTURE
One integration foundation. Many workflows.
Business processes
Faculty review, research projects, and the next workflow that needs
repository data.
Low-code platform
Forms, rules, approvals. Flexible enough for core and sophisticated
processes: this is where the data lifecycle happens.
Integration layer
REST calls, metadata mapping, authentication, handles back to the
workflow. The only code we wrote.
DSpace
The repository of record. Core unchanged, so upgrades stay simple.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
THE CRITICAL CHOICE:
METADATA MAPPING: THE NEEDLEWORK
PROCESS
IN DSPACE
IN THE LOW-CODE PLATFORM
Faculty review
dc.contributor.author
Employee full name
dc.date.issued
Publication date
dc.relation.ispartof
Journal
Project management
oairecerif.project.startDate
Start of the project
dc.subject
Project keywords
dc.relation.equipment
Related equipment
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
PCG ACADEMIA
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026
04
Lessons learned
What it means for the DSpace owners.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
Key lessons learned
FIVE THINGS
Know where your data travels
Every DSpace owner should know which university processes their repository data takes part in.
A CRIS is an investment
Building out entities (people, projects, equipment) makes the repository more useful every year.
Source and destination
DSpace can feed processes and receive their results. Design for both directions.
Ecosystems, not silos
Build living information ecosystems in which systems share one verified record.
Every system needs a business case
Do not modify the DSpace core to make it something it is not. Surround it with low-code.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
What changes for the DSpace owners
WHY THIS MATTERS
TODAY
WITH THIS MODEL
Export to Excel. Re-type it.
→
Workflows read DSpace directly.
Errors found when a report breaks.
→
Every workflow checks the data.
A place where data ends up.
→
Critical infrastructure others rely on.
Another customization to the core.
→
One integration layer, reused.
01 CONTEXT
02 USE CASES
03 HOW TO
04 LESSONS
THE PARADOX
Repositories are rarely treated as critical infrastructure. Yet they hold critical data.
Connect it to the workflows, and the repository becomes part of the critical infrastructure.
THANK YOU
Q&A
Małgorzata Paszkowska
malgorzata.paszkowska@pcgacademia.pl
Małgorzata Paszkowska
www.pcgacademia.pl
SCAN FOR CONTACT
PCG ACADEMIA · DSPACE EXPERTS
NAUG · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026