e-IRG Workshop in Uppsala: Bringing the e-Infrastructure actors together

Developing the collaboration between the e-Infrastructure actors (providers and users) is crucial to the future of e-Infrastructures. e-Infrastructure providers constantly need to know the evolution in the needs of the user communities in order to provide a user-orientated service. According to Sverker Holmgren, co-chair of the e-IRG, “it is of highest priority that the e-Infrastructure services provided are adapted to the needs of the researchers using e-Science tools. This calls for effective, user-driven processes when building e-Infrastructures, and strong user involvement when operating them”.

Through its workshops and other initiatives, the e-IRG aims to actively contribute to bringing together the different key actors pertaining to e-infrastructures. Over the years, the e-IRG has developed strong relations with the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) that was created in 2002 by the European Council of Ministers to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy making on research infrastructures in Europe, and to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to a better use and development of research infrastructures. Representatives of ESFRI projects have been invited to the recent e-IRG workshops to present their projects and their user requirements for the e-Infrastructure. This year in Uppsala, Ian McCrea (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) presented EISCAT-3d, a project aiming to build Europe’s next generation radar system for ionospheric and atmospheric research in northern Europe, and addressed the question of the e-Infrastructures needs by ESFRI projects. Leif Laaksonen, chair of the e-IRG is looking very positively to the development of the collaboration between the e-IRG and ESFRI: “This collaboration is essential, and will enable to better support the users communities in the European Research Area (ERA).”

During  the last workshop in Uppsala, Laaksonen also highlighted the importance of the collaboration between the e-IRG and the European e-Infrastructure Forum (EEF), created in 2008 with the aim of gathering together major projects and organizations such as EGEE, EGI, DEISA, PRACE, Terena and GEANT, to discuss principles and best practices to create synergies for distributed infrastructures. This forum focuses on the needs of the user communities that require services which can only be achieved by a strong collaboration between the various e-Infrastructures. One of the main goals of this initiative is to create a platform for interaction of the large e-Infrastructures as a whole with multi-national user communities interested in making use of the e-Infrastructures. According to Laaksonen, “the collaboration between the e-IRG and the EEF offers new possibilities to reach the e-Infrastructure end-users”.

Contacts between the e-IRG and the Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE) initiative were also strengthened. Max Lemke (European Commission) presented at the workshop this important initiative that is part of the Future Internet Research Strategy of the EU ICT Programme. Future Internet is now recognised as a priority at European and international levels, and a comprehensive set of initiatives and tools are in place to pool the necessary resources. Experimentation and testing is at the heart of the FIRE experimental facility which aims to support research for the Future Internet at different stages of the R&D cycle based on the design principle of “open coordinated federation of testbeds”.

Contact:

secretariat@e-irg.eu

http://www.e-irg.eu/

The e-Infrastructure Reflection Group is an inter-governmental policy body comprising national delegates from more than 30 European countries. Its work is supported by the e-IRG Support Programme 2 (e-IRGSP2), a project financed by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme, which includes seven partner institutions: CSC, NCF, ETL, GRNET, AUEB-RC, Genias BV and PSNC.