R1 — Conduct an architectural audit of existing data infrastructure

Audience: Research institutions (offices of research, IT leadership, research libraries).

Action: Classify every research dataset the institution holds by its current architectural tier, using the M-0001 framework. For each dataset, record the number of independent copies, the failure domains those copies occupy, the verification capability available, and the exposure to each failure mechanism (M-0005). Complete the audit within twelve months.

Rationale: An institution cannot remediate architectural exposure it has not measured. The audit creates the baseline against which subsequent recommendations are scoped and priced, and it surfaces the datasets most immediately exposed to the failure mechanisms peer institutions have already experienced. The audit template produced by the working group (intended to be released as part of R7) is designed to complete in approximately two staff-months at a research university of median size.

R1 is the entry point. R2-R6 cannot be priced or sequenced without it. The audit is also the institutional mechanism by which the diffuse §3 failure modes become a concrete inventory the institution can act on rather than a list of things that have happened elsewhere.