A data infrastructure is a digital infrastructure promoting
data sharing
Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available to other investigators. Many funding agencies, institutions, and publication venues have policies regarding data sharing because transparency and openness are consid ...
and consumption.
Similarly to other
infrastructures, it is a structure needed for the operation of a society as well as the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function, the data economy in this case.
Background
There is an intense discussion at international level on
e-infrastructures and data infrastructure serving scientific work.
The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) presented the first European roadmap for large-scale Research Infrastructures.
These are modeled as layered hardware and software systems which support sharing of a wide spectrum of resources, spanning from networks, storage, computing resources, and system-level middleware software, to structured information within collections, archives, and databases. The
e-Infrastructure Reflection Group (e-IRG) has proposed a similar vision.
In particular, it envisions e-Infrastructures where the principles of global collaboration and
shared resource
In computing, a shared resource, or network share, is a computer resource made available from one host to other hosts on a computer network.
It is a device or piece of information on a computer that can be remotely accessed from another compu ...
s are intended to encompass the sharing needs of all research activities.
In the framework of the
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) e-infrastructure programme, e-Infrastructures are defined in terms of integration of networks, grids,
data center
A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...
s and
collaborative environments, and are intended to include supporting operation centers, service registries, credential delegation services,
certificate authorities, training and
help desk
A help desk is a department or person that provides assistance and information, usually for electronic or computer problems. In the mid-1990s, research by Iain Middleton of Robert Gordon University studied the value of an organization's help des ...
services. The Cyberinfrastructure programme launched by the US
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
(NSF) plans to develop new research environments in which advanced computational, collaborative, data acquisition and management services are made available to researchers connected through high-performance networks.
More recently, the vision for “global research data infrastructures” has been drawn by identifying a number of recommendations for developers of future research infrastructures.
This vision document highlighted the open issues affecting data infrastructures development – both technical and organizational – and identified future research directions.
Besides these initiatives targeting “generic” infrastructures there are others oriented to specific domains, e.g. the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
promotes the
INSPIRE initiative for an e-Infrastructure oriented to the sharing of content and service resources of European countries in the ambit of
geospatial datasets.
Related Projects
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D4Science
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OpenAIRE
The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europe ...
[OpenAIRE Website http://www.openaire.eu/]
EUDATGRDI2020 (Wayback Machine, Snapshot from June 3, 2017)EPOS
See also
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Data cooperative
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Hybrid Data Infrastructure
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Information Infrastructure
An information infrastructure is defined by Ole Hanseth (2002) as "a shared, evolving, open, standardized, and heterogeneous installed base" and by Pironti (2006) as all of the people, processes, procedures, tools, facilities, and technology whic ...
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Research Infrastructure
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Spatial Data Infrastructure
References
What is data infrastructure?
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Information systems
IT infrastructure
Data