A Microservice-based Software Architecture to Enhance Collaboration among heterogenous stakeholders operating in the Research Domain

Research centers or universities daily produce interesting research products thanks to their ecosystem of laboratories and small spin-offs, but this ecosystem frequently has purely academic vision and does not easily meet the demand of the productive world. At the same time, the productive world is more aware of the market needs and, although it always looks for new solutions to be designed in collaboration with the academic world, it lacks the necessary contacts and connections. This paper presents a microservice-based software architecture designed to facilitate connections between researchers and any stakeholder interested in research outcomes while also accelerating the digital transition towards a more sustainable and smart world. Within the paper, the proposed system architecture is described and functionally validated as a first step in the development of such a similar solution and to provide a useful hint for future works to researchers and experts interested in its application.