IRIS is a digital database of materials used to collect data for second language research that went fully live in August 2012. At the time of writing (May 2013), there have been over 3,300 downloads of materials held on the site, and almost 11,000 visits, demonstrating a clear need for the resource. IRIS has the potential to make a step-change in the way certain field works, impacting the nature and rate of second language (L2) research. Here the paper outlines the motivations for the project, what the IRIS database consists of, how it is structured, and the future of the resource.