Abstract The CRIS now at the University of Hong Kong, “HKU Scholars Hub” (the Hub), began as a means to provide visibility to HKU research, people, and their expertise. It now also acts as a tool for management, evaluation and visualization of HKU research. The expected addition of CERIF compliancy to DSpace-CRIS in May 2014, will further enhance the Hub's utility for visibility, collaboration, and benchmarking.

This article shows the reengineering of the persistence tier of the open source software DSpace, to introduce a lower coupling in its software layers. The prototype was made using design patterns and standards from J2EE world: Domain Store, Session Façade, Application Service, JPA were also introduced for a technological upgrade of the platform. The research and development activity aimed at this goal was accomplished in a stage offered by CILEA to achieve a degree in Computer Science Engineering, an opportunity that CILEA offers on several innovative ICT themes, with the support of its experts.