# ROR API MCP for AI Agents AI Agent Connect > ROR API MCP. Access the global registry of research organizations to search, identify, and retrieve detailed metadata for academic and research institutions. This connection allows your agent to pull verified ROR IDs, website domains, and location data for over 100,000 records, making it a vital tool for cleaning institutional affiliation data and mapping internal IDs to global standards in academic research. ## Overview - **Category:** data-management - **Price:** Free - **Endpoint:** https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_qUJpWiFMw4aZtzyRjlaTiSeQqwA7ypQJ4eY83FWk/ai-agent-connect - **Tags:** academic-research, metadata, persistent-identifiers, institutional-data, search-api ## Description The ROR API MCP lets your agent talk directly to the Research Organization Registry. Instead of hunting through different websites to find out which university a researcher belongs to, your agent can pull that information instantly. It handles the heavy lifting of finding official identifiers, website domains, and location data for over 100,000 organizations. This is a huge win if you're tired of cleaning up messy affiliation strings from research papers. You can map those messy lines to a clean, standardized identifier in one go. If you're building a research management system or just trying to organize a massive dataset of academic outputs, this connection makes the data reliable. You can find this and many other specialized connectors in the Vinkius catalog to help your agent handle these specific data tasks without you having to write custom scripts. ## Tools ### list_organizations Search for research entities using keywords or advanced filters. This helps you find specific groups of institutions by country or type. ### get_heartbeat Check if the ROR API is currently online. This lets you know the registry is reachable before you start a big data pull. ### get_organization Fetch a complete record for a specific institution using its ID, domain, or URL. It pulls everything from location data to external identifiers. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Search for research organizations in Brazil with the type 'education'. ``` **Response:** ``` I'll search the registry for you. I found several institutions, including 'Universidade de São Paulo' (ROR: 0369vth32) and others that match that criteria in Brazil. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Get the full record for ROR ID 015w2mp89. ``` **Response:** ``` Fetching details for `015w2mp89`... This record corresponds to the University of Cambridge. It is an active education institution located in the United Kingdom, with external IDs including GRID: grid.5335.0. ``` **Prompt:** ``` Check if the ROR API is currently online. ``` **Response:** ``` I'll check the system status now. The registry responded with 'OK', so the service is fully operational. ``` ## Capabilities ### Search research entities Find specific research institutions using keywords, advanced filters, or affiliation strings. ### Fetch organization records Pull complete metadata including ROR IDs, website domains, and location details for a single record. ### Verify API status Check if the ROR registry is online and operational before starting a data pull. ### Map affiliation strings Convert unstructured text from research papers into official, standardized ROR identifiers. ### Retrieve external identifiers Get associated IDs like GRID, ISNI, and Crossref for every research organization. ## Use Cases ### Cleaning journal data A librarian asks the agent to find ROR IDs for 500 universities in a spreadsheet to standardize a publication list. ### Building a repository A developer wants to pull website domains and locations for every university in Europe to populate a new research database. ### Mapping parent orgs A policy analyst needs to group smaller labs under their parent research institutions to analyze funding distribution. ### Validating institution types A researcher wants to filter for only education type organizations in Brazil to find specific academic partners. ## Benefits - Stop manually hunting for ROR IDs. Use `list_organizations` to find specific entities quickly. - Fix messy research paper affiliations. Map unstructured strings to official ROR identifiers. - Get reliable location data. Pull accurate country and city info for every institution. - Connect to external identifiers. Grab GRID, ISNI, and Crossref IDs automatically with `get_organization`. - Verify data accuracy. Use `get_heartbeat` to ensure the registry is online before running big batch jobs. ## How It Works The bottom line is you get a direct line to global academic data without the manual search. 1. Subscribe to the ROR API MCP. 2. Provide your ROR Client ID for identified traffic (optional). 3. Start querying research institutions directly from your AI client. ## Frequently Asked Questions **What is the ROR API MCP?** It's a way to give your AI agent direct access to the Research Organization Registry. It allows the agent to look up official details for over 100,000 research institutions worldwide. **How can I use the ROR API MCP to find a university?** You can ask your agent to search for a specific school by name or location. The agent will look through the global registry and provide the official name, ROR ID, and other key details. **Can the ROR API MCP find international research centers?** Yes, it covers research organizations globally. You can search for centers in specific countries or by research type to find the right institution. **How does the ROR API MCP help with data cleaning?** It helps you turn messy, inconsistent affiliation strings from papers into standardized identifiers. This makes it much easier to organize and categorize large sets of academic data. **Can I use the ROR API MCP to get website domains?** Yes, when your agent pulls an organization's record, it includes the official website domain along with other metadata like its location. **Does the ROR API MCP support large batches?** You can use it to query institutions one by one or search for groups of them. It's designed to handle large-scale data identification for research projects. **How do I connect the ROR API MCP to my agent?** You can connect it through the Vinkius catalog. Once connected, you just talk to your agent normally to start pulling institutional data. **How can I find a ROR ID for a specific university name?** Use the `list_organizations` tool with the `query` parameter. For example, searching for 'University of Cambridge' will return the matching record and its unique ROR ID. **Can I retrieve external identifiers like GRID or ISNI for an organization?** Yes! When you use `get_organization` with a ROR ID, the response includes a crosswalk to other identifiers like GRID, ISNI, Crossref Funder ID, and Wikidata. **Is there a way to check if the ROR service is currently available?** You can use the `get_heartbeat` tool. It performs a simple check and returns an 'OK' status if the ROR API is operational.