Speaker
Jelena Angelis
(European Future Innovation System (EFIS) Centre)
Description
eInfraCentral is a coordination and support action funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 framework programme. Its mission is to ensure that by 2020 **a broader and more varied set of users benefits from European e-Infrastructures**. eInfraCentral is one of the key initiatives **driving implementation of the European Open Science Cloud.**
The talk will consist of three parts:
**1. The challenge for research communities:** Due to a fragmented e-infrastructure landscape, end-users, such as researchers, innovators or industry actors, often are unaware of the e-infrastructure services available in Europe that could aid their work. Similarly, service providers and data producers have difficulty reaching out to potential users due to the lack of coordination and harmonisation across various e-infrastructures. Even if users find out about the availability of a certain e-service, it is difficult to gather further information and compare it with other existing services. Service providers also lack user feedback on the ways they could improve their offerings. This leads to inefficient funding patterns through the emergence of overlapping efforts and as such, slower rates of open innovation due to the lack of competition in the field.
**2. eInfraCentral brings the solution:**
eInfraCentral is one of the core initiatives in the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud, actively contributing to the building of the EOSC service catalogue and portal. eInfraCentral creates a unified online service catalogue where users can search, browse, compare and access e-services. Users can also rate services, helping service providers to improve their offerings, which is also aided by the availability of usage statistics on the service level. The eInfraCentral’s standard Service Description Template and catalogue were designed via an open and guided discussion with the e-Infrastructure community. This joint approach to defining and monitoring e-infrastructures services helps increase their uptake and enhances understanding of where improvements can be made in delivering and professionalising services. Moreover, eInfraCentral also facilitates the development of a shared language to describe services across the e-infrastructure community, fostering cooperation between infrastructure projects, communities and initiatives. EInfraCentral helps initiate new service offerings and to engage with a broader set of users and needs, thus speeding up the creation of innovation through Open Science.
**3. Call to action:**
The audience will be invited to engage with eInfraCentral in a number of ways, such as i) exploring the updated version of the eInfra Portal and leaving feedback that will help the project team improve it; ii) learning about eInfraCentral through the poster and website, and iii) following project developments by signing up to the newsletter and engaging with it through social media updates.
The eInfraCentral team believes that the audience could greatly benefit from learning about eInfraCentral as many of the conference participants could utilise the project outcomes – the portal, the service catalogue and standard Service Description Template that will be fed into the development of the EOSC – in their daily work, both from the service provider and end-user/researcher side.
Summary
The lightning talk will focus on outlining the benefits that eInfraCentral brings to research communities, both on the researcher/end-user and service provider side. It will first introduce the challenges faced by the research community, and then show how eInfraCentral addresses the issues (fragmentation, lack of harmonization and common vocabulary to describe services, etc.). The talk will also prompt participants to engage with the project in various ways.
| Type of abstract | Lightning Talk |
|---|
Primary author
Jelena Angelis
(European Future Innovation System (EFIS) Centre)
