1. The e-Infrastructure Commons a status report EGI Conference 2015 Sverker Holmgren e-IRG Chair

2. 2 The e-Infrastructure Reflection Group Founded in 2003 to provide strategic advice and guidance on the development of a European e- infrastructure for science and research. Delegates appointed by ministries – represents nations (EU member states and associated states + EC) Vision: an open and innovating e-Infrastructure that enables flexible cooperation and optimal use by international user communities of all electronically available resources.

3. 3 The current European e-Infrastructure landscape Networks GEANT association Computing and DataPRACE, EGI, EUDAT, Helix Nebula (in different ways) Tools and ServicesAll above (different T&S) Open AccessOpenAIRE Data SharingRDA Disciplinary e-Infrastructures (e.g. in ESFRI projects) –Sometimes coordinated with the general e-Infrastructures above at international and/or national level National e-Infrastructures –this is where the bulk of resources and funding is!

4. 4 Open Science Open Science - transforming and opening up research through the use of ICT Objective: Making science more efficient and transparent and enabling broader impact within research, innovation, and society In practice: introducing policies, processes and resources to guarantee open (and usually free) access to scientific publications, research data, software, and methods and educational material

5. 5 Open Science and e-Infrastructure Enabling components for Open Science Definitions, policies, rules and standards e-Infrastructure and e-Science tools for enabling discovery, easy access, and use of the results Funding schemes for the costs for providing access to and storing/maintaining the results A refined system for giving credit to researches that provide access to their results to others Sometimes full open access to research results can not be implemented. Note that the components above still are essential for efficient progress of science!

6. 6 Commercial break Open e-IRG Workshop "Open Science and e-Infrastructures“, June 3, 2015, in Riga, Latvia Session 1: Open Science - Directions and main issues Session 2: Open Science - Use Cases Session 3: Open Science - The policy perspective and relevance to e-Infrastructures http://e-irg.eu/e-irg-workshop-june-2015

7. 7 The current European e-Infrastructure landscape Networks GEANT association Computing and DataPRACE, EGI, EUDAT, Helix Nebula (in different ways) Tools and ServicesAll above (different T&S) Open AccessOpenAIRE Data SharingRDA Disciplinary e-Infrastructures (e.g. in ESFRI projects) –Sometimes coordinated with the general e-Infrastructures above at international and/or national level National e-Infrastructures –this is where the bulk of resources and funding is!

8. 8 There is a problem! Researchers were (and still are) often confused by the complex e-Infrastructure landscape in Europe insufficient coordination, collaboration, and integration of e-Infrastructure services lack of “visibility” of European e-Infrastructure services lack of coherence between national and European structures lack of clarity of roles –e.g. for data: end users, data owners, storage providers, providers for preserving data, data service providers, and data service developers lack of business models for sustainability lack of models for integration with commercial providers lack of coherence from many user communities

9. 9 The history of the e-Infrastructure Commons e-IRG Roadmap 2012: Outlines Europe’s need for a single e-Infrastructure Commons Workshops in Dublin and Vilnius during 2013: Discussion on structure in Dublin, on implementation in Vilnius e-IRG White Paper 2013: Recommendations on the Commons open and accessible continuously adapting to the changing needs open to new technological opportunities meet the challenges of implementing the EU’s Horizon 2020 Strategy.

10. 10 e-IRG White Paper 2013 recommends… … that the e-Infrastructure Commons is established through a joint and truly common strategic effort between users and primary strategic actors and suppliers. the roles of users and providers must be clarified users need to become more directly involved in strategy, coordination and innovation activities users need be prepared and empowered to budget for basic e-infrastructure services. users should take responsibility and be accountable for their use of e-infrastructure services. a common strategic vision should not form a barrier to innovation in any of the individual (existing) services

11. 11 e-Infrastructure Commons core functions 1.Community building, high level strategy and coordination: a single organisation with a central role for user communities 2.Service provisioning: a flexible, open, and competitive approach to national, European, and global service provision; with advanced collaboration among the interested public and commercial service providers. 3.Innovation: Implementation of major innovation projects through the best consortia including e-Infrastructure suppliers, industry, users and academia.

12. 12 e-Infrastructure Commons essential features includes a platform for coordination of sustainable and interoperable e-infrastructure services and innovation projects comprises a set of constantly evolving but clearly defined, comprehensive, interoperable and sustained set of services –provisioned by several e-Infrastructure providers to fulfill specific needs of the users –maximal in the sense that all essential user needs are covered –minimal in the sense that all services are explicitly motivated by user needs and that any overlap of services are thoroughly motivated

13. 13 The e-Infrastructure Commons ESFRI RIs Other RIs International research projects …… E-Infrastructure service provisioning (a simplified view…) Tools and Services Data Computing Networks/Connectivity

14. 14 Further e-IRG recommendations 1 Encourage the development of strong national e-Infrastructure nodes and their co-operation for delivering European e-Infrastructure services. –stimulate service portfolio harmonisation inside and across countries including actions directed to encourage the development of federated service delivery systems. Push e-Infrastructure organisations and users to jointly address issues around coordination of governance, sustainability, procurement, legal issues, business models and inclusiveness –Further discussions at upcoming e-IRG workshops

15. 15 Furter e-IRG recommendations 2 Push European user communities (ESFRIs, FETs, other e- infrastructure users) to organize themselves with respect to formulating their e-infrastructure requirements and to budget for those services –e-IRG participation in the ESFRI Roadmap 2016 process Push for the development of models and solutions for the federation of commercial services in the e-Infrastructure ecosystem –done by initiatives and projects

16. 16 e-Infrastructure and ESFRI projects The ESFRI Roadmap and ESFRI projects play very important roles at the European research infrastructure scene All ESFRI projects are dependent on elements of e-Infrastructure Some ESFRI projects are in fact e-Infrastructures –PRACE (Partership for Advanced Computing in Europe): Generic RI for leading-edge high-performance computing –ELIXIR (RI for life-science data/information) –… At the European level, there has earlier been a lack of coordination between generic e-Infrastructures and topical research infrastructures like the ESFRI projects

17. 17 Actions taken by e-IRG and ESFRI ESFRI invited e-IRG representatives to be members of the ESFRI SWGs and Implementation Group –Provided input to the ESFRI format + indicators (“e-Needs”) for the 2015 ESFRI call for proposals (ESFRI 2016 Roadmap Update) –Participates in the on-going evaluation of ESFRI proposals e-IRG has formed an Overarching WG with these e-IRG reps. –Coordinates the evaluation of e-Needs in the ESFRI proposals –Has been asked by ESFRI to provide a draft for an e-Infrastructure/data landscape analysis in the new ESFRI roadmap document

18. 18 e-IRG Guidlines 2014 Title: Best practices for the use of e-Infrastructures by large- scale research infrastructures Provides recommendations and best practices for the use of e-Infrastructures within large-scale European research infrastructures –Input to proposers of new ESFRI projects –A basis for the evaluation of ESFRI proposals –A basis for the e-Infrastructure/data landscape analysis in the ESFRI roadmap –A basis for the implementation of emerging and new ESFRI projects http://e-irg.eu/guidelines

19. 19 e-IRG Guidlines 2014 Some highlights from the recommendations: e-Infrastructure needs and data aspects should be fully taken into account from the beginning of the RI study phase The availability of existing e-Infrastructures services should be carefully examined before defining the ICT infrastructure for a new RI. Also, it should be explored how existing RIs realized their ICT infrastructure The e-needs have to be assessed and the data policy, including the data sharing rules, and the data life cycle, have to be defined Build e-infrastructure solutions consisting of multiple layers, successively adding more specialised higher-level services using standardised interfaces. Here, different layers can be provided by different actors Adopt a global, standardised lowest-level data infrastructure, including e.g. authorisation and authentication and persistent data identifiers. Here, federative approaches could be used to include existing solutions

20. 20 Summary e-Infrastructure is needed for the implementation of Open Science The concept of the e-Infrastructure Commons is now established and widely accepted National nodes: Still huge diversity in national e-infrastructure systems Governance: Discussions have intensified, partly as a result of the draft H2020 Work Program for 2016-2017 Organisation/involvement of user communities: The e-IRG/ESFRI collaboration for the ESFRI Roadmap 2016 is a first step Inclusion of commercial providers: Several initiative, mainly focusing on clouds Conclusion: Still a long way to go, but the journey has started!