How can Science be improved by e-Science Swedish Research Council Stockholm Malcolm Atkinson Director e-Science Institute & e-Science Envoy 14 th February 2007

Overview > Five Years of Successful e-Science in UK Three Significant Strengths Established ESFRI, EGEE, NDGF, et al. thriving in Europe e-Science & Cyberinfrastructure everywhere Building e-Science Communities e-Science Institute, NeSC & e-Science Centres All Hands Meetings Support for Discipline specific communities Education and Training Communities & Breadth Projects e-Infrastructure

Defining e-Science e-Science: Systematic Support for Collaborative Research Multi-disciplinary, Multi-Site & Multi- National All disciplines contribute & benefit Enabling wider engagement Building with and demanding advances in Computing Science

UK e-Science Diversity Thriving Community All disciplines & all Research Councils Industry & Academia Many universities & research institutes UK e-Science All Hands Meetings Productive collaboration

Essential Collaboration Collaboration Requires Commitment and Strategy A challenge to build and maintain We have done it repeatedly Can we capture and clone the recipes? Can we support it well for all research? For all citizens? New Patterns of Communication

Edinburgh

eSI Mission To facilitate the e-Science community Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

e-Science Institute The meeting place for e-Science researchers in the UK Interdisciplinary Space to think Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Important Goal To address the perceived disconnect between applications scientists and technical experts. Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Governance Began Aug 2001 – EPSRC funding for 5 more £0.5 M p.a. to July 2011 Active Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Programme Committee (PC) –Guiding scientific strategy of eSI –Advising on selection between themes, on visitors and workshops - many useful suggestions Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Catalysing Thinking The e-Science Institute runs two principal types of activity: Research meetings –Conferences –Workshops –Schools –Training A Visitors programme Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Statistics In the first five years we have: –Run an average of 7 events a month (for a total of 407 events) –Had more than 12,800 delegates through our doors –Hosted 43 visitors including 7 long-term researchers Sometime in June 2006 we had our 29,000 th delegate day Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Activity … we have had a very busy programme. Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Responsive Mode First five years, the community requirement was for a rapid response to requests for meetings and workshops –We need a meeting next month to… Many opportunities for –community building –outreach to new communities –encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Thematic Mode The e-Science Institute has developed a thematic mode programme that concentrates on in- depth and sustained investigation of a topic –6 months or a year –Supported theme leader –Research focus –Bridging the perceived disconnect Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Themes - Overview These are proving popular and we will be running four concurrent themes during Call for 2008 themes is in progress … in the pipeline By competition – proposals reviewed by SAB Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Completed Themes Theme 1: Information Service for Smart Decision Making (Dr Jennifer Schopf, Jan 2005) Grid computing resources and services can advertise a large amount of data for many different use cases. This first theme organised a series of events around the topic of Grid information services and their use in decision-making. Theme 2: Exploiting Diverse Sources of Scientific Data (Prof Jessie Kennedy, Nov 2005) What strategies and tools will enable researchers to exploit it the rapidly growing wealth of data? Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Current Themes Theme 3: Adoption of e-Research Technologies ( Dr Alex Voss, Aug 2006, with NCeSS, Profs Rob Procter and Tom Rodden) e-Infrastructure should underpin research in all disciplines. What are the obstacles to this democratic e-Research, and how can we encourage wider use of e-Research technologies? Theme 4: Spatial Semantics for Automating Geographic Information Processes (Dr Femke Reistma & Prof Werner Kuhn, Jan 2007) Up to 80% of information is spatially referenced in some way, yet that information is often unusable without expert interpretation. We seek to formalise the semantics of geographical data Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

Themes in Theme 5: Distributed Programming Abstractions (Dr Shantenu Jha, Mar 2007) Computing infrastructure is changing yet scientists still use the same programming methods for distributed computing they use on isolated machines. How should scientific programming change to fit the new world of distributed computing? Theme 6: e-Science in the Arts and Humanities (Lorna Hughes, Apr 2007, with AHESSC) The arts and humanities have substantial commonalities with e-Science, from highly dispersed content, to deep data and text mining, to visualisation and simulation. This theme will show how e-Infrastructure can support innovative research in the arts and humanities, expanding its use beyond the early adopters. Slide from Dr Anna Kenway

e-Science Centres in the UK Leicester LeSC Birmingham White Rose Grid Bristol Lancaster Reading Oxford Edinburgh Belfast Cambridge CCLRC Daresbury Manchester UCL Newcastle Southampton Cardiff CCLRC RAL Access Grid Support Centre Access Grid Support Centre Digital Curation Centre National Grid Service National Grid Service National Centre for e-Social Science National Centre for e-Social Science National Centre for Text Mining National Centre for Text Mining National Institute for Environmental e-Science National Institute for Environmental e-Science Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute Glasgow York Leeds Sheffield Coordinated by: Directors Forum & NeSC

e-Science All Hands Meetings Everybody (>650) engaged in e-Science Keynotes, Papers, Posters, Tutorials & BoFs International & Industrial engagement Booths (Centres & Research Councils), Demos

Workshop 1: Kyra Norman and Orchestra Cube; Photo: Rob Bristow, June 2006 Slide: Angela Piccini Arts & Humanities BoF at AHM 2006

Educate or Waste Investment Abraham Lincoln If you think the cost of education is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance

Complementary Approaches Training –Targeted –Immediate goals –Specific skills –Building a workforce Education –Pervasive –Long term and sustained –Generic conceptual models –Developing a culture Both are needed Society Graduates EducationInnovation Invests PreparesCreate Enriches Organisation Skilled Workers TrainingServices & Applications Invests PreparesDevelop Strengthens Emphasis here in times of change

Timeline Today Broadcasting 100 years Broadcasting Telecommunications 170 years Telecommunications Printing 600 years Printing Writing 5,000 years Writing Grunts and body language 500,000 years Grunts and body language 500,000 years Speech 300,000 years Speech Home Computers Internet and WWW Mobile phones Grid and Web 2.0 Web 3.0 and Ubiquitous connected devices 30 years Home Computers Internet and WWW Mobile phones Grid and Web 2.0 Web 3.0 and Ubiquitous connected devices 30 years

ICEAGE International Collaboration –Grid Education eu.org/ Forum 57 members –40 attended 9 countries –Aim to influence Services for Educators –Digital library –Self-paced learning –Educate the educators Summer Schools –Five in 2006 – 230 students –ISSGC07 in Mariefred –Five in preparation T-Infrastructure –Advances driven by Summer Schools

Focus on Research Communities Collaborate on building communities Collaborate on developing education Collaborate on encouraging multi- disciplinary thinking Collaborate on propagation of e-Science Collaborate on eSI themes - highlight research into e-Science methods