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- Research & Development
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- Use and Relevance of web2.0 for researchers
- Adoption of e-Research Technologies: from prototype to commodity
- Adaptive Visualisation Tools for e-Science Collaboration (ADVISES)
- ID Cards
- Accelerating Transition to Virtual Research Organisation in Social Science (AVROSS)
- Collaborative Research Events on the Web (CREW)
- Uptake of e-Research in Taiwan and the UK
- e-Uptake: Enabling Uptake of e-Infrastructure Services
- eIUS: e-Infrastructure Use Cases and Service Usage Models
- International Collaboration to Extend and Advance Grid Education (ICEAGE)
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- Social and Ethical Issues in e-Health Technologies
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e-Uptake: Enabling Uptake of e-Infrastructure Services
Summary
| Project Start: | 1 st April 2007 |
| Project End: | 31 st March 2009 |
| Project Partners: | National Centre for e-Social Science, University of Manchester (NCeSS) National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh (NeSC) Arts and Humanitites e-Science Support Centre, King's College London (AHeSSC) |
| Project Programme: | JISC e-Infrastructure Programme |
| JISC Theme: | e-Research |
Background
The UK is entering a period in which online collaborative environments, distributed computing and data resources, advanced analytical tools, together with support and training, are becoming readily available for researchers in all disciplines. Within some subject areas, for example, high-energy physics and bioinformatics, e-infrastructure already underpins everyday work; whilst other subject areas are still investigating the applicability of existing resources for research and making recommendations for future development. The deployment of e-infrastructure, whether within institutions, nationally or internationally, has the potential to increase the pace, impact, and efficiency of research both within and across disciplines.
If academic research in the UK is to build on the foundations laid by UK e-Science then it is essential first to understand what potential barriers exist that hinder wider adoption of e-infrastructures in all areas of research and to devise strategies to address them.
Aims and Objectives
The project will develop strategies aimed at increasing and widening adoption of e-infrastructure and significantly increasing the user-base of JISC funded services. Involvement of actual or potential users of e-infrastructure services is a key element in this: we aim to provide the ground for a change in culture, in the way that researchers see their practice and the role that advanced information technologies play in their work. At the same time, we wish to provide service providers and technology developers with a sound grasp of problems as perceived by users. In addition to the tangible outcomes of the work, we envisage that this culture change will help to achieve wider impact and sustainability. Both of these elements will feed into and benefit from other (JISC funded) activities such as the e-Framework and the JISC VRE programme as well as the related eIUS project led by Oxford University in partnership with NCeSS.
Project Methodology
The project will be structured around three main activities: desk-based research and systematic synthesis of current work being undertaken by the three partners on barriers to adoption within their respective communities; a series of case studies to understand these barriers in detail; development of a coordinated set of responses to these barriers such as outreach, training and exemplars with active participation of the user communities to develop them. The user requirements case studies will be conducted through surveys of research communities, interviews with key stakeholders, including: researchers and working e-Scientists, e-infrastructure builders, members of e-infrastructure support initiatives, resource providers and funding agencies. Where appropriate, interviews will be conducted using Access Grid or by telephone. The study design will incorporate several key dimensions: discipline (physical sciences, systems biology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities), e-infrastructure components (e.g., middleware, security, service registries) and services (e.g., NGS, OMII, DCC, Access Grid Support Centre, NaCTeM, EDINA, MIMAS, UKERNA, Viznet).
We will complement surveys and interviews by taking advantage of our existing activities that supporting adoption through training. These activities can occur at multiple points in the adoption cycle. For instance, there are frequent requests from communities at the stage of assessing whether or how they should engage with e-infrastructure. Through the case studies, the project will map the adoption of e-infrastructure across different research fields, and investigate similarities and differences between them. It will then use these findings to identify the main barriers to the wider adoption of e-infrastructure and how they manifest themselves within different user communities. Following from this, we will identify appropriate technical and non-technical responses to these barriers.
Deliverables
The key deliverables will have a direct value in helping to inform service providers in their future development of services for these communities. They will also be used to influence the provision of training to address the identified barriers and influence the development of specific support services and self paced support materials to provide long term help for these communities. Further to this, funders will be able to tune their future calls in response to project findings.
Specific deliverables include, amongst others: a typology of barriers and a report on these barriers, a report detailing the current state of adoption, a training provision survey and gap analysis, recommendations for training programmes, a UK Support event scheduling an advertising system and a UK repository of support materials. In addition, we will engage with research communities in various ways, for example through workshops, training events and presentations. A specific focus will be on engagement with the Arts and Humanities as well as the Social Sciences.
Stakeholders
- UK researchers seeking to engage with e-infrastructures and in need of help to assess their needs, to find and then to utilise offerings;
- existing and future e-Infrastructure providers formulating their research and development strategies;
- technology developers prioritising research and developent activities;
- JISC and other funding bodies developing strategic programmes and services;
- institutions investigating and developing tailored virtual research environment frameworks.
Project Partners
The Enabling Uptake of e-Infrastructure Services project is funded by JISC and led by the National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS) in partnership with the National e-Science Centre (NeSC) and the Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre (AHeSSC).
Project Team
Project Manager
Alex Voss
National Centre for e-Social Science
University of Manchester
Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
Telephone: +44 (0)161 275 1384
eMail: alex.voss@ncess.ac.uk
Management Team
Principal Investigator:
Rob Procter , National Centre for e-Social Science, University of Manchester
Co-Investigators:
Peter Halfpenny , National Centre for e-Social Science, University of Manchester
Malcolm Atkinson , National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh
David Fergusson , National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh
Sheila Anderson , Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre, King's College London
Lorna Hughes , Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre, King's College London
Researchers
Elizabeth van der Meer, National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh
Nariman Youssef, National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh
Boon Low National e-Science Centre, University of Edinburgh
Marzieh Asgari-Targhi , National Centre for e-Social Science, University of Manchester
Elpiniki Fragkouli, Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre, King's College, London
Stuart Dunn, Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre, King's College, London