Objectives of the study
The study will examine the role of e-infrastructure in the creation of global virtual research communities in order to identify the types of e-infrastructure and the modes of development most effective in supporting productive research in Europe. Based on this new understanding, it will provide recommendations to the Commission on how e-infrastructure development can best be promoted through EU policy, including how the necessary resources might be mobilised particularly from the private sector. The study analytical objectives are reached through extensive new empirical work, on which the subsequent policy recommendations, including a roadmap for action, can be most solidly based. Not least, the study provides a first contribution to policy implementation by raising awareness of recommended action and the new roadmap.
Analytical work in the study:
- explores to what extent e-infrastructures link researchers globally and reduce the effect of geographical distance on research collaboration and other cooperation in academia, i.e. to what extent they contribute to the establishment of global virtual research communities. In particular, it looks at the way e-infrastructures can reduce disadvantages of researchers in peripheral regions and developing countries.
- analyses the organisational structures and coordination mechanisms of e-infrastructures, their key players in the interaction with the researcher communities, the relevant regulatory and policy aspects and the support they receive by funding and other external bodies.
- investigates how researchers use e-infrastructures and assesses in detail the benefits and costs for global virtual research communities, where they accrue and to what extent they influence effective adoption and productive use.
Policy-related work in the study includes:
- drafting a roadmap for future policy action suited to maximising benefits of e-infrastructures in the establishment and effective work of virtual research communities. Construction of the roadmap will take into account empirical results, and analysis of current policy, making full reference to work by ESFRI on European requirements for research infrastructure generally, and in particular to the ESFRI roadmap series.
- wide dissemination of the agreed roadmap and its validation in close interaction with researchers and other key stakeholders - funding bodies, research foundations and councils, ministries, NRENs, computing centres etc.
As our concern involves both e-Infrastructure providers and their respective virtual research communities, questions to be addressed in this project include:
- What kinds of e-Infrastructures are successful and less successful in anticipating and catering to the needs of virtual research communities?
- How well do e-Infrastructure providers define, consult, plan for, engage with and overcome bottlenecks in scaling up to match growth in their user community, and coordinate with other complementary tools and resources to maintain a unique profile while also integrating with other synergetic efforts?
- How do e-Infrastructures implement a strategy to ensure that they make an essential contribution to their community of beneficiaries?
- What kinds of instruments do e-Infrastructures need to gauge and adjust their provisions on an ongoing basis in order to cater to their communities?
This project will gather data, including detailed interviews with users and providers from around the world and from a variety of e-Infrastructures and research communities. The data will be used to build an analytical model of e-Infrastructure success in productive research communities, indicators to reflect success, scenarios of future development and a roadmap to help coordinate future policy and public sector action.
We will share our findings with e-Infrastructure policy-making bodies such as e-IRG, EGI, ESFRI coordinators, and the Commission. A further target audience for dissemination is the groups who develop e-Infrastructures and those who are actively affected by or contribute to them. This includes researchers on e-Infrastructure projects (ESFRI, but also other EU and global e-Infrastructure projects), research administrators (including those coordinating networks), national research organizations, funding bodies, Grid and National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and groups of researcher who are considering using or gaining access to e-Infrastructures, or who are impacted by them.