Why PID Implementation Is Harder Than You Think

Do you sometimes feel like PID adoption should be easier than it actually is? You are not alone. In this session you will hear a first-hand account of what it really takes to embed persistent identifiers across a large, heterogeneous research infrastructure – Germany's National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), spanning dozens of institutions and disciplines. PIDs are widely recognised as a key enabler for FAIR RDM. But between that recognition and actual adoption lies a significant implementation gap: administrative hurdles, domain-specific vocabularies, fragmented technical systems, and a mismatch between emerging topic hype and foundational groundwork. Not all efforts succeed, and not all stakeholders are receptive – though occasionally an intervention makes an unexpected difference. After this session, you will recognise the most common barriers to PID adoption in complex multi-stakeholder environments, have a realistic picture of implementation timelines, and understand why frustration tolerance is a genuine project competency.