diff --git a/dhp-common/pom.xml b/dhp-common/pom.xml
index 43c2a38340..ae7302b987 100644
--- a/dhp-common/pom.xml
+++ b/dhp-common/pom.xml
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@
 			<groupId>com.rabbitmq</groupId>
 			<artifactId>amqp-client</artifactId>
 		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>net.sf.saxon</groupId>
+			<artifactId>Saxon-HE</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
 	</dependencies>
 
 </project>
diff --git a/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/AbstractExtensionFunction.java b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/AbstractExtensionFunction.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bd39624404
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/AbstractExtensionFunction.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package eu.dnetlib.dhp.utils.saxon;
+
+import net.sf.saxon.expr.XPathContext;
+import net.sf.saxon.lib.ExtensionFunctionCall;
+import net.sf.saxon.lib.ExtensionFunctionDefinition;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.Sequence;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.StructuredQName;
+import net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException;
+
+public abstract class AbstractExtensionFunction extends ExtensionFunctionDefinition {
+
+    public static String DEFAULT_SAXON_EXT_NS_URI = "http://www.d-net.research-infrastructures.eu/saxon-extension";
+
+    public abstract String getName();
+    public abstract Sequence doCall(XPathContext context, Sequence[] arguments) throws XPathException;
+
+    @Override
+    public StructuredQName getFunctionQName() {
+        return new StructuredQName("dnet", DEFAULT_SAXON_EXT_NS_URI, getName());
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public ExtensionFunctionCall makeCallExpression() {
+        return new ExtensionFunctionCall() {
+            @Override
+            public Sequence call(XPathContext context, Sequence[] arguments) throws XPathException {
+                return doCall(context, arguments);
+            }
+        };
+    }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/ExtractYear.java b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/ExtractYear.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f90e2a23e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/ExtractYear.java
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+package eu.dnetlib.dhp.utils.saxon;
+
+import net.sf.saxon.expr.XPathContext;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.Item;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.Sequence;
+import net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.SequenceType;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.StringValue;
+
+import java.text.ParseException;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Calendar;
+import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
+
+public class ExtractYear extends AbstractExtensionFunction {
+
+    private static final String[] dateFormats = { "yyyy-MM-dd", "yyyy/MM/dd" };
+
+    @Override
+    public String getName() {
+        return "extractYear";
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Sequence doCall(XPathContext context, Sequence[] arguments) throws XPathException {
+        if (arguments == null | arguments.length == 0) {
+            return new StringValue("");
+        }
+        final Item item = arguments[0].head();
+        if (item == null) {
+            return new StringValue("");
+        }
+        return new StringValue(_year(item.getStringValue()));
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMinimumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMaximumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType[] getArgumentTypes() {
+        return new SequenceType[] { SequenceType.OPTIONAL_ITEM };
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType getResultType(SequenceType[] suppliedArgumentTypes) {
+        return SequenceType.SINGLE_STRING;
+    }
+
+    private String _year(String s) {
+        Calendar c = new GregorianCalendar();
+        for (String format : dateFormats) {
+            try {
+                c.setTime(new SimpleDateFormat(format).parse(s));
+                String year = String.valueOf(c.get(Calendar.YEAR));
+                return year;
+            } catch (ParseException e) {}
+        }
+        return "";
+    }
+}
diff --git a/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/NormalizeDate.java b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/NormalizeDate.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..634e08788b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/NormalizeDate.java
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+package eu.dnetlib.dhp.utils.saxon;
+
+import net.sf.saxon.expr.XPathContext;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.Sequence;
+import net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.SequenceType;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.StringValue;
+
+import java.text.ParseException;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Date;
+
+public class NormalizeDate extends AbstractExtensionFunction {
+
+    private static final String[] normalizeDateFormats = { "yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss", "yyyy-MM-dd", "yyyy/MM/dd", "yyyy" };
+
+    private static final String normalizeOutFormat = new String("yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss'Z'");
+
+    @Override
+    public String getName() {
+        return "normalizeDate";
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Sequence doCall(XPathContext context, Sequence[] arguments) throws XPathException {
+        if (arguments == null | arguments.length == 0) {
+            return new StringValue("");
+        }
+        String s = arguments[0].head().getStringValue();
+        return new StringValue(_year(s));
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMinimumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMaximumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType[] getArgumentTypes() {
+        return new SequenceType[] { SequenceType.OPTIONAL_ITEM };
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType getResultType(SequenceType[] suppliedArgumentTypes) {
+        return SequenceType.SINGLE_STRING;
+    }
+
+    private String _year(String s) {
+        final String date = s != null ? s.trim() : "";
+
+        for (String format : normalizeDateFormats) {
+            try {
+                Date parse = new SimpleDateFormat(format).parse(date);
+                String res = new SimpleDateFormat(normalizeOutFormat).format(parse);
+                return res;
+            } catch (ParseException e) {}
+        }
+        return "";
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/PickFirst.java b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/PickFirst.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1f209bed09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/PickFirst.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package eu.dnetlib.dhp.utils.saxon;
+
+import net.sf.saxon.expr.XPathContext;
+import net.sf.saxon.om.Sequence;
+import net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.SequenceType;
+import net.sf.saxon.value.StringValue;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+
+public class PickFirst extends AbstractExtensionFunction {
+
+    @Override
+    public String getName() {
+        return "pickFirst";
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Sequence doCall(XPathContext context, Sequence[] arguments) throws XPathException {
+        if (arguments == null | arguments.length == 0) {
+            return new StringValue("");
+        }
+        String s1 = arguments[0].head().getStringValue();
+
+        if (arguments.length > 1) {
+            String s2 = arguments[1].head().getStringValue();
+
+            return new StringValue(StringUtils.isNotBlank(s1) ? s1 : StringUtils.isNotBlank(s2) ? s2 : "");
+        } else {
+            return new StringValue(StringUtils.isNotBlank(s1) ? s1 : "");
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMinimumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int getMaximumNumberOfArguments() {
+        return 2;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType[] getArgumentTypes() {
+        return new SequenceType[] { SequenceType.OPTIONAL_ITEM };
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public SequenceType getResultType(SequenceType[] suppliedArgumentTypes) {
+        return SequenceType.SINGLE_STRING;
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/SaxonTransformerFactory.java b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/SaxonTransformerFactory.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..611709ff0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dhp-common/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/utils/saxon/SaxonTransformerFactory.java
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package eu.dnetlib.dhp.utils.saxon;
+
+import net.sf.saxon.Configuration;
+import net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl;
+
+import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
+import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
+import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+
+public class SaxonTransformerFactory {
+
+    /**
+     * Creates the index record transformer from the given XSLT
+     * @param xslt
+     * @return
+     * @throws TransformerException
+     */
+    public static Transformer newInstance(final String xslt) throws TransformerException {
+
+        final TransformerFactoryImpl factory = new TransformerFactoryImpl();
+        final Configuration conf = factory.getConfiguration();
+        conf.registerExtensionFunction(new ExtractYear());
+        conf.registerExtensionFunction(new NormalizeDate());
+        conf.registerExtensionFunction(new PickFirst());
+
+        return factory.newTransformer(new StreamSource(new StringReader(xslt)));
+    }
+
+}