gRISC Self-Assessment Toolkit

Green Research Infrastructure Sustainable Certification Self Assessment (gRISC-SA) is a web-based toolkit for assessing the sustainability maturity of research infrastructures, digital infrastructures, and data centres for a greener certification readiness profile. The system enables structured self-assessment, generates actionable improvement plans, and produces professional reports to support sustainability planning and certification readiness.

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Overview

The gRISC Self-Assessment toolkit is designed to transform static sustainability questionnaires into an interactive, data-driven platform.

It allows organisations to:

• evaluate sustainability practices across multiple themes
• identify capability gaps and improvement priorities
• generate structured action plans
• interpret readiness levels
• produce stakeholder-ready reports

The tool supports internal decision-making as well as preparation for sustainability standards alignment and future certification frameworks.

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Key Features

• Structured Self-Assessment

  • Multi-theme questionnaire covering governance, energy, monitoring, circularity, water, and lifecycle

• Scoring & Interpretation Engine

  • Capability levels (Level 1–3)
  • Gap analysis and readiness interpretation
  • Priority classification (High / Medium / Low)

• Action Plan Generation

  • Automatically derived recommendations
  • Implementation prioritisation (Immediate → Consolidate)
  • Effort estimation

• Interactive Dashboard

  • Theme-wise performance overview
  • Priority distribution
  • Visual readiness indicators

• Professional Report Export

  • Structured PDF report
  • Interpretation, summaries, and detailed action plans
  • Suitable for stakeholder review and baseline discussions

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Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js (App Router), React
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Backend / DB: Supabase
• Data Model: JSON-based questionnaire + relational persistence
• Export: HTML-based PDF rendering

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Architecture Overview

The system follows a modular architecture:

1. Static Questionnaire Layer

• Defined in JSON
• Contains themes, scope items, questions, and answer options

2. Runtime Assessment Layer

• Stores user responses and scope selections
• Managed via Supabase

3. SAQ Engine

Located in src/lib/saq/engine/

• scoring.ts → calculates capability scores
• results.ts → builds aggregated results
• actions.ts → generates action plans
• interpretation.ts → produces readiness insights

4. UI Layer

• Assessment flow (step-based)
• Dashboard and analytics
• Report view

5. Report & Export Layer

• Report page acts as source of truth
• PDF generated from rendered HTML (preserving layout and styling)

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Project Structure (Simplified)

src/
  app/saq/
    assessment/
    dashboard/
    report/

  components/saq/

  lib/
    saq/
      engine/
      utils/
      questionnaire.data.json
    supabase/

docs/
.cursor/rules/

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Getting Started

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Configure environment

Create a .env.local file:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=your_url
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_key

3. Run the development server

npm run dev

Open:

http://localhost:3000

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Development Guidelines

• Business logic must remain inside src/lib/saq/engine/
• Do not persist derived results (scores, actions) in the database
• The report page must remain the single source of truth for PDF export
• UI components should consume engine outputs, not reimplement logic

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Documentation & Project Memory

This project includes a structured documentation layer:

• docs/SAQ_PROJECT_CONTEXT.md → project overview
• docs/SAQ_ARCHITECTURE.md → technical design
• docs/SAQ_DEVELOPMENT_WORKFLOW.md → development guidance
• .cursor/rules/ → AI-assisted development rules

These ensure consistency across development and enable easier onboarding for contributors.

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Use Cases

• Sustainability self-assessment for research infrastructures
• Internal benchmarking and improvement planning
• Supporting sustainability reporting and transparency
• Preparing for certification baseline development

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Contact

For collaboration, research integration, or contributions, please reach out to Adnan (a.tahir2@uva.nl)