e-Science Infrastructure for the Social Sciences

When the term „e-Science“ became popular, it frequently was referred to as “enhanced science” or “electronic science”. More telling is the definition ‘e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it’ (Taylor, 2001). The question arises to what extent can the social sciences profit from recent developments in e- Science infrastructure? While computing, storage and network capacities so far were sufficient to accommodate and access social science data bases, new capacities and technologies support new types of research, e.g. linking and analysing transactional or audio-visual data. Increasingly collaborative working by researchers in distributed networks is efficiently supported and new resources are available for e-learning. Whether these new developments become transformative or just helpful will very much depend on whether their full potential is recognized and creatively integrated into new research designs by theoretically innovative scientists. Progress in e-Science was very much linked to the vision of the Grid as “a software infrastructure that enables flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resources’ and virtually unlimited computing capacities (Foster et al. 2000). In the Social Sciences there has been considerable progress in using modern IT- technologies for multilingual access to virtual distributed research databases across Europe and beyond (e.g. NESSTAR, CESSDA – Portal), data portals for access to statistical offices and for linking access to data, literature, project, expert and other data bases (e.g. Digital Libraries, VASCODA/SOWIPORT). Whether future developments will need GRID enabling of social science databases or can be further developed using WEB 2.0 support is currently an open question. The challenges here are seamless integration and interoperability of data bases, a requirement that is also stipulated by internationalisation and trans-disciplinary research. This goes along with the need for standards and harmonisation of data and metadata. Progress powered by e- infrastructure is, among others, dependent on regulatory frameworks and human capital well trained in both, data science and research methods. It is also dependent on sufficient critical mass of the institutional infrastructure to efficiently support a dynamic research community that wants to “take the lead without catching up”.

e-Science Infrastructure for the Social Sciences

"When the term 'e-Science' became popular, it frequently was referred to as 'enhanced science' or 'electronic science'. More telling is the definition 'e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it' (Taylor, 2001). The question arises to what extent can the social sciences profit from recent developments in e-Science infrastructure? While computing, storage and network capacities so far were sufficient to accommodate and access social science data bases, new capacities and technologies support new types of research, e.g. linking and analysing transactional or audiovisual data. Increasingly collaborative working by researchers in distributed networks is efficiently supported and new resources are available for e-learning. Whether these new developments become transformative or just helpful will very much depend on whether their full potential is recognized and creatively integrated into new research designs by theoretically innovative scientists. Progress in e-Science was very much linked to the vision of the Grid as 'a software infrastructure that enables flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resources' and virtually unlimited computing capacities (Foster et al. 2000). In the Social Sciences there has been considerable progress in using modern IT-technologies for multilingual access to virtual distributed research databases across Europe and beyond (e.g. NESSTAR, CESSDA - Portal), data portals for access to statistical offices and for linking access to data, literature, project, expert and other data bases (e.g. Digital Libraries, VASCODA/ SOWIPORT). Whether future developments will need GRID enabling of social science databases or can be further developed using WEB 2.0 support is currently an open question. The challenges here are seamless integration and interoperability of data bases, a requirement that is also stipulated by internationalisation and trans-disciplinary research. This goes along with the need for standards and harmonisation of data and metadata. Progress powered by e-infrastructure is, among others, dependent on regulatory frameworks and human capital well trained in both, data science and research methods. It is also dependent on sufficient critical mass of the institutional infrastructure to efficiently support a dynamic research community that wants to 'take the lead without catching up'." (author's abstract

Accelerating transition to virtual research organisation in social science (AVROSS) : final report

This report is the fourth deliverable of the AVROSS study (Accelerating Transition to Virtual Research Organisation in Social Science, AVROSS). The study aims were to identify the requirements and options for accelerating the transition from traditional research to virtual research organisations through e-Infrastructures. The reason for this focus is that it is clear that "soft" sciences have both much to gain and a key role to play in promoting e-Infrastructure uptake across the disciplines, but to date have not been the fastest adopters of advanced grid-based e-Infrastructure. Our recommendations to EU policy-makers can be expected to point the way to changing this situation, promoting e-Infrastructure in Europe in these disciplines, with clear requirements to developers and expected impact in several other disciplines with related requirements, such as e-Health

Roadmap Thematic Digital Competence Center Domain Social Sciences and Humanities

The roadmaps consist of a landscape analysis, an analysis of challenges, a description of the network organisation to initiate and help guide the required collaboration, and a description of ‘bottleneck projects’ that tackle the challenges stated. The roadmaps form a starting point for the further development of the TDCCs

Status report on the NCRIS eResearch capability summary

Preface The period 2006 to 2014 has seen an approach to the national support of eResearch infrastructure by the Australian Government which is unprecedented. Not only has investment been at a significantly greater scale than previously, but the intent and approach has been highly innovative, shaped by a strategic approach to research support in which the critical element, the catchword, has been collaboration. The innovative directions shaped by this strategy, under the banner of the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), have led to significant and creative initiatives and activity, seminal to new research and fields of discovery. Origin This document is a Technical Report on the Status of the NCRIS eResearch Capability. It was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training in the second half of 2014 to examine a range of questions and issues concerning the development of this infrastructure over the period 2006-2014. The infrastructure has been built and implemented over this period following investments made by the Australian Government amounting to over $430 million, under a number of funding initiatives