Ro-eIRG Manifesto

Romanian e-Infrastructure Reflection Group

 Web site of Ro-eIRG: www.ro-eirg.org

Context

The term e-Infrastructure refers to a relatively recent open system, comprising services, software components, and network, storage and computing resources, and supporting flexible cooperation and optimal use of all electronically available resources. In an e-Infrastructure research environment, researchers  working in the context of their home institutions or in national or multinational scientific initiatives have shared
access to distributed scientific facilities (including data, instruments, computing and communications), regardless of their type and location in the world.

The European e-Infrastructure Group (e-IRG) is an inter-governmental public body comprising government-appointed delegates from 31 member states as well as representatives from the European Commission. The e-Infrastructure Reflection Group was founded to define and recommend best practices for the pan-European electronic infrastructure efforts. The e-IRG produces white papers, roadmaps and recommendations, and analyses the future foundations of the European Knowledge Society.

For Romania, the need to give an impulse to the growth of the economic competitiveness, especially in the period 2007-2013, which represents the first stage of the post-accession process, imposes the essential requirement of reducing and exceeding the technological differences separating it from the rest of the member states. This situation imposed as a major objective for Romania the achievement of a dynamic and competitive economic environment, capable to assimilate and to develop high technology fields and to answer to the strategic long-term development demands within the context of the global evolution of the economy based on knowledge. In this context, Romanian e-Infrastructure has been improved in the last decade through significant investments in hardware and collaborative projects in the frame of the national R&D programmes InfoSoc, CEEX, PNII and European Structural Funds. In 2007 the Romanian Committee for Research Infrastructures was established with the basic mission to define, and periodically review, the national priorities concerning the development of research infrastructures and to formulate recommendations in the form of a national roadmap. In the context that the Romanian offer for the European e-Infrastructure has increase significant, considerable efforts should be devoted not only to stimulate and support the adoption of the e-Infrastructure on a larger scale at national level, but also to improve the international cooperation based on e-Infrastructures.

Goals of Ro-eIRG initiative

Short term goals:

• establish national working groups on different topics related to e-Infrastructures;
• propose a strategic research & development agenda for the future evolution of the national program related to e-Infrastructures;
• dissemination of the e-IRG recommendations at national level.

Middle term goals:

• open new channels for participation in European projects related to e-Infrastructures;
• build a network of Romanian stakeholders in the field of e-Infrastructures.

Long term goals:

• build links and joint investment between public research and industry;
• search for new opportunities and capacity for development of a competitive national e-Infrastructure.

Membership

Ro-eIRG is an expert group comprising of delegates of Romanian institutions with e-Infrastructure capacities, representatives of e-Infrastructure user communities, and delegates of the Romanian national authorities in infrastructures.

Proposal for a TO-DO list of Ro-eIRG

• produce recommendations, roadmaps and white-papers about national e-Infrastructures
• support the implementation of the national strategies in the area of e-Infrastructures and providing valuable feedback for improvements;
• promote Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) at national level;
• promote best practices in e-Infrastructures at national level;
• bring new users and user communities in contact with the national e-Infrastructure;
• support adoption and access to e-Infrastructure services by new user communities
• develop mechanisms for easy access to e-Infrastructure services;
• pursue global standardization efforts to improve interoperability with international e-Infrastructures
• gather information on commercial uptakes of e-Infrastructure related innovations;
• build a knowledge hub in the area of Romanian e-Infrastructures to support collaboration opportunities, training and competence building;
• dissemination of information related to European e-Infrastructures;
• identify existing European and national R&D activities in software services for the benefit of its members;
• develop e-Infrastructure related strategies for Romania and bridging them with the EC strategies and policies;
• exchange R&D results in e-Infrastructures with other member states;
• promote global access to e-Infrastructures;
• identify and promote best practices;
• be a reference point for end-users at national and European level.

Ro-eIRG relationship with e-IRG

• open channels for cooperation with eIRG and other European e-Infrastructure related groups ;
• increased visibility of the Romanian teams working in e-Infrastructure as potential partners in collaborative projects involving e-Infrastructures
• potential involvement of Romanian teams in the eIRG activities defining recommendations with the benefit of promoting their research interests and ideas
• dissemination of the eIRG documents, vision and open requests for contributions
• faster assimilation by the Romanian R&D teams of the recommendations produced by eIRG.

SPRERS's proposal: the first Ro-eIRG workshop.