ROR was launched in 2019 and goes back to the OrgID project. The project is the result of an initiative by various libraries, academic publishers and information service providers with the aim of creating an open, community-based directory of institutional identifiers.
In 2021, ROR officially replaced the Global Research Identifier Database (GRID), which until then had provided a common identifier for scientific institutions. The Open Funder Registry (OFR/FundRef) operated by Crossref will also be merged with ROR from 2024.
ROR is controlled by the California Digital Library, Crossref and DataCite.
