data.bris Research Data Repository Framework

We describe a new open source framework that implements an innovative research data repository layer over a petascale storage facility and report on its development as part of the data.bris project at the University of Bristol. Two interesting aspects of the system are: its extensible metadata regime built around a mandatory core over which domain-specific metadata is layered; and its use of Bittorrent for robust transfer of large datasets and for SWORD2 research data deposit.