UK makes bid for innovation

E-infrastructure key to country retaining global competitiveness

A national e-infrastructure for research will help maintain the UK’s global competitiveness in science and technology, according to a public sector task force.

Proposals for the UK e-infrastructure will be launched today (Thursday) and include core elements such as shared data access, collaboration technology and digital preservation.

The July 2004 Science and Innovation Framework set out the potential attributes for a national e-infrastructure and an Office of Science and Innovation (OSI) working group was then tasked with developing a plan of action.

Neil Beagrie, partnership manager at advisory organisation the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), says the e-infrastructure represents a key departure in technology management.

‘People traditionally concentrate on networks and instruments, but now they are thinking about the much broader areas of infrastructure, such as the management of information and preservation,’ he said.

The working group has produced a detailed vision for a national e-infrastructure, including recommendations for implementing the processes over the next 10 years.

Beagrie says the e-infrastructure will help meet the needs for future collaborative research in a knowledge-based economy, where developments might include more than 2,000 scientists across the globe.

‘The e-infrastructure will help support virtual linking and facilities across the world,’ he said. ‘There is an information explosion and it is having an effect on curation and preservation.’

Sharm Manwani, associate professor at Henley Management College, says effective partnerships that help create an IT system suitable for skills development is vital. ‘It is important that government and business work together to achieve what is best for research and development in the UK,’ he said.

The OSI working group consists of senior representatives from the Research Councils, Jisc, Research Information Network and the British Library.

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