TY - CONF T1 - Adoption of e-Infrastructure Services: inhibitors, enablers and opportunities T2 - 5th International Conference on e-Social Science Y1 - 2009 A1 - Voss, A. A1 - Asgari-Targhi, M. A1 - Procter, R. A1 - Halfpenny, P. A1 - Fragkouli, E. A1 - Anderson, S. A1 - Hughes, L. A1 - Fergusson, D. A1 - Vander Meer, E. A1 - Atkinson, M. AB - Based on more than 100 interviews with respondents from the academic community and information services, we present findings from our study of inhibitors and enablers of adoption of e-Infrastructure services for research. We discuss issues raised and potential ways of addressing them. JF - 5th International Conference on e-Social Science CY - Maternushaus, Cologne ER - TY - JOUR T1 - A Strategy for Research and Innovation in the Century of Information JF - Prometheus Y1 - 2009 A1 - e-Science Directors’ Forum Strategy Working Group A1 - Atkinson, M. A1 - Britton, D. A1 - Coveney, P. A1 - De Roure, D A1 - Garnett, N. A1 - Geddes, N. A1 - Gurney, R. A1 - Haines, K. A1 - Hughes, L. A1 - Ingram, D. A1 - Jeffreys, P. A1 - Lyon, L. A1 - Osborne, I. A1 - Perrott, P. A1 - Procter. R. A1 - Rusbridge, C. AB - More data will be produced in the next five years than in the entire history of human kind, a digital deluge that marks the beginning of the Century of Information. Through a year‐long consultation with UK researchers, a coherent strategy has been developed, which will nurture Century‐of‐Information Research (CIR); it crystallises the ideas developed by the e‐Science Directors’ Forum Strategy Working Group. This paper is an abridged version of their latest report which can be found at: http://wikis.nesc.ac.uk/escienvoy/Century_of_Information_Research_Strategy which also records the consultation process and the affiliations of the authors. This document is derived from a paper presented at the Oxford e‐Research Conference 2008 and takes into account suggestions made in the ensuing panel discussion. The goals of the CIR Strategy are to facilitate the growth of UK research and innovation that is data and computationally intensive and to develop a new culture of ‘digital‐systems judgement’ that will equip research communities, businesses, government and society as a whole, with the skills essential to compete and prosper in the Century of Information. The CIR Strategy identifies a national requirement for a balanced programme of coordination, research, infrastructure, translational investment and education to empower UK researchers, industry, government and society. The Strategy is designed to deliver an environment which meets the needs of UK researchers so that they can respond agilely to challenges, can create knowledge and skills, and can lead new kinds of research. It is a call to action for those engaged in research, those providing data and computational facilities, those governing research and those shaping education policies. The ultimate aim is to help researchers strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK research base and increase its contribution to the economy. The objectives of the Strategy are to better enable UK researchers across all disciplines to contribute world‐leading fundamental research; to accelerate the translation of research into practice; and to develop improved capabilities, facilities and context for research and innovation. It envisages a culture that is better able to grasp the opportunities provided by the growing wealth of digital information. Computing has, of course, already become a fundamental tool in all research disciplines. The UK e‐Science programme (2001–06)—since emulated internationally—pioneered the invention and use of new research methods, and a new wave of innovations in digital‐information technologies which have enabled them. The Strategy argues that the UK must now harness and leverage its own, plus the now global, investment in digital‐information technology in order to spread the benefits as widely as possible in research, education, industry and government. Implementing the Strategy would deliver the computational infrastructure and its benefits as envisaged in the Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004–2014 (July 2004), and in the reports developing those proposals. To achieve this, the Strategy proposes the following actions: 1. support the continuous innovation of digital‐information research methods; 2. provide easily used, pervasive and sustained e‐Infrastructure for all research; 3. enlarge the productive research community which exploits the new methods efficiently; 4. generate capacity, propagate knowledge and develop skills via new curricula; and 5. develop coordination mechanisms to improve the opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to make digital‐infrastructure provision more cost effective. To gain the best value for money strategic coordination is required across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A coherent strategy is essential in order to establish and sustain the UK as an international leader of well‐curated national data assets and computational infrastructure, which is expertly used to shape policy, support decisions, empower researchers and to roll out the results to the wider benefit of society. The value of data as a foundation for wellbeing and a sustainable society must be appreciated; national resources must be more wisely directed to the collection, curation, discovery, widening access, analysis and exploitation of these data. Every researcher must be able to draw on skills, tools and computational resources to develop insights, test hypotheses and translate inventions into productive use, or to extract knowledge in support of governmental decision making. This foundation plus the skills developed will launch significant advances in research, in business, in professional practice and in government with many consequent benefits for UK citizens. The Strategy presented here addresses these complex and interlocking requirements. VL - 27 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Fostering e-Infrastructures: from user-designer relations to community engagement T2 - Symposium on Project Management in e-Science Y1 - 2008 A1 - Voss, A. A1 - Asgari-Targhi, M. A1 - Halfpenny, P. A1 - Procter, R. A1 - Anderson, S. A1 - Dunn, S. A1 - Fragkouli, E. A1 - Hughes, L. A1 - Atkinson, M. A1 - Fergusson, D. A1 - Mineter, M. A1 - Rodden, T. AB - In this paper we discuss how e-Science can draw on the findings, approaches and methods developed in other disciplines to foster e-Infrastructures for research. We also discuss the issue of making user involvement in IT development scale across an open ommunity of researchers and from single systems to distributed e-Infrastructures supporting collaborative research. JF - Symposium on Project Management in e-Science CY - Oxford ER - TY - CONF T1 - Widening Uptake of e-Infrastructure Services T2 - 4th International Conference on e-Social Science Y1 - 2008 A1 - Voss, A. A1 - Asgari-Targhi, M. A1 - Procter, R. A1 - Halfpenny, P. A1 - Dunn, S. A1 - Fragkouli, E. A1 - Anderson, S. A1 - Hughes, L. A1 - Mineter, M. A1 - Fergusson, D. A1 - Atkinson, M. AB - This paper presents findings from the e-Uptake project which aims to widen the uptake of e-Infrastructure Services for research. We focus specifically on the identification of barriers and enablers of uptake and the taxonomy developed to structure our findings. Based on these findings, we describe the development of a number of interventions such as training and outreach events, workshops and the deployment of a UK 'one-stop-shop' for support and event information as well as training material. Finally, we will describe how the project relates to other ongoing community engagement efforts in the UK and worldwide. Introduction Existing investments in e-Science and Grid computing technologies have helped to develop the capacity to build e-Infrastructures for research: distributed, networked, interoperable computing and data resources that are available to underpin a wide range of research activities in all research disciplines. In the UK, the Research Councils and the JISC are funding programmes to support the development of essential components of such infrastructures such as National Grid Service (www.ngs.ac.uk) or the UK Access Management Federation (www.ukfederation.org.uk) as well as discipline-specific efforts to build consistent and accessible instantiations of e-Infrastructures, for example the e- Infrastructure for the Social Sciences (Daw et al. 2007). These investments are complemented by an active programme of community engagement (Voss et al. 2007). As part of the community engagement strand of its e-Infrastructure programme, JISC has funded the e-Uptake project, a collaboration between the ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science at the University of Manchester, the Arts & Humanities e-Science Support Centre at King's College London and the National e-Science Centre at the University of Edinburgh. In this paper we present the project's activities to date to widen the uptake of e-Infrastructure services by eliciting information about the barriers to and enablers of uptake, developing adequate interventions such as training and outreach events, running workshops and the deploying a UK 'one-stop-shop' for support and event information as well as training material. JF - 4th International Conference on e-Social Science CY - Manchester UR - http://www.ncess.ac.uk/events/conference/programme/workshop1/?ref=/programme/thurs/1aVoss.htm ER - TY - CONF T1 - e-Research Infrastructure Development and Community Engagement T2 - All Hands Meeting 2007 Y1 - 2007 A1 - Voss, A. A1 - Mascord, M. A1 - Fraser, M. A1 - Jirotka, M. A1 - Procter, R. A1 - Halfpenny, P. A1 - Fergusson, D. A1 - Atkinson, M. A1 - Dunn, S. A1 - Blanke, T. A1 - Hughes, L. A1 - Anderson, S. AB - The UK and wider international e-Research initiatives are entering a critical phase in which they need to move from the development of the basic underlying technology, demonstrators, prototypes and early applications to wider adoption and the development of stable infrastructures. In this paper we will review existing work on studies of infrastructure and community development, requirements elicitation for existing services as well as work within the arts and humanities and the social sciences to establish e-Research in these communities. We then describe two projects recently funded by JISC to study barriers to adoption and responses to them as well as use cases and service usage models. JF - All Hands Meeting 2007 CY - Nottingham, UK ER -