Research Infrastructures are at the core of the knowledge triangle. From Hervé Pero′s presentation Utilizing the full potential of research infrastructures for strengthening the European Research Area (ERA). Image courtesy of H Pero

Less intimate than Ilsa and Rick, close to 100 participants attended a Reflection Group (e-IRG) workshop in Paris on 21-22 October to discuss management of massive data sets, access for users to these data sets, and access to computing resources. 

Projects from ESFRI, the European strategy forum on research infrastructures, representing many scientific disciplines, are important potential grid users. This was the first event where the ESFRI and cyberinfrastructure (CI) worlds came together. 

ESFRI, formed in 2002 at the behest of the European Council, works to strengthen the scientific integration of Europe and its international outreach.  ESFRI facilitates policy-making on research infrastructures, the facilities scientists need to conduct and accelerate their research, and acts as an incubator for the development of these facilities. The roughly 35 ESFRI research projects are pan-European and in some cases global; they require funding from many countries to build and operate, and cyberinfrastructure to provide access for their global user communities to data and results.

The workshop sought to identify specific ESFRI projects that can take advantage of CI to make significant improvements in speed and efficiency, both in construction and operation.  Seven of the 35 ESFRI projects, all of which are in the preliminary development phase, presented their needs and goals.

• In one day the Square Kilometer Array will transport over 5000 times the total IP traffic of the AT&T US Backbone.
• The ELIXIR biology user community will number over a million.
• Lifewatch needs seamless integration of biodiversity data among multiple organizations and sensors.
• The CLARIN language project is looking to add to an already large multimedia legacy volume by about 100 TB/year.
• The ICOS greenhouse gas monitoring project will need dynamic data archiving with a durability of 20 years.
• The CESSDA social science archives, serving 200,000 researchers and learners, is looking for authorization, authentication, auditing and access solutions.
• The ESS neutron source expects to produce 1 TB/day of data by 2010 with a total approaching 1 PB.

Bob Jones from the EGEE presented some lessons learned from the Large Hadron Collider that can be used for the ESFRI and other research infrastructures. 

The challenge for the future, participants agreed, is to manage the complexity of the data-related approaches with different types of stakeholders and requirements, and the numerous initiatives and projects promoting them. E-IRG plans to set up a task force, and this discussion will continue at the next e-IRG meeting.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Read more.