Education and Training Task Force Report

The development of e-Infrastructure, of which grid computing is a fundamental element, will
have major economic and social benefits. Online and financial businesses already
successfully use grid computing technologies, for instance. There are already demonstrations
showing the benefits to engineering, medicine and the creative industries as well. New
research methods and technologies generate large data sets that need to be shared in order to
ensure continued social and scientific research and innovation. e-Infrastructure provides an
environment for coping with these large data sets and for sharing data across regions. An
investment in educating people in this technology, then, is an investment that will strengthen
our economies and societies. In order to deliver e-Infrastructure education and training
successfully in the EU, we must develop a policy framework that will ensure shared
responsibility and equivalent training in the field. This document focuses primarily on the
current state of grid and e-Science education, introducing key challenges and the
opportunities available to educational planners that serve as a starting point for further work.
It then proposes strategies and policies to provide a supportive framework for e-Infrastructure
education and training.

The ETTF Report concludes with policy recommendations to be taken forward by the e-IRG.
These recommendations address issues such as the level of Member State investment in
e-Infrastructure education, the harmonisation of education in distributed-computation thinking
and in the use of e-Infrastructure and the development of standards for student and teacher
identification, for the sharing of t-Infrastructure (and training material) and for accreditation.