What is a current research information system (CRIS)?

A CRIS (in German FIS) is a database in which the research activities of an institution, such as publications, (third-party funded) projects and other activities, are documented on an ongoing basis.

As a university bibliography, a CRIS thus provides an overview of the scientific achievements of an institution and supplies data for reporting and analysis purposes (intellectual capital report, evaluations, etc.).
An institution's own portal based on this database supports both the visibility of individual researchers and the entire institution for a broad public through appropriate indexing in leading search engines. A CRIS can also serve as a data source for downstream websites (e.g., institute websites) and other systems and platforms (e.g., ORCID).