Consortium members Login
Introduction
Supporting and promoting scientific research and innovation as well enabling access to scientific information are key priorities for the European Commission and for the Member States.
The rapid development and adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed the way researchers work, enabling almost instantaneous collaboration regardless of physical location and has provided access to an enormous amount of scientific information that can be processed on powerful computational platforms. This new way of working has generated and generates a huge volume of data, whose exchange and curation pose significant challenges.
To address this point. the High-Level Expert Group on Scientific Data (also known as HLEG on Scientific Data) recommends in its report (Riding the Wave ) the creation of a directive to set up a unified authentication and authorisation system, which they envision would pave the way to distributed and collaborative authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA) for scientific data. As a result of the recommendation of the HLEG on Scientific Data, the European Commission has tendered to award funding to study the feasibility and impact of adapting the existing, widely used AAA platforms and services to be fully compliant with the requirements posed by the use of data/information resources (such as papers).
In December 2011 the call for tender was awarded to the Consortium composed of the following four partners:
- TERENA (Trans European Research and Education Networking Association), the leading partner;
- LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries);
- UvA (Universiteit van Amsterdam hereafter called UvA);
- DEENK (University and National Library of Debrecen)
The consortium will work together with the following experts:
- Diego Lopez (Telefonica I+D)
- Klaas Wierenga (Cisco Systems)
- Torbjörn Wiberg (Umeå University)
- Nicole Harris (JISC Advance)
This study will run from Dec 2011 until August 2012.
Aim of the Study
The goal of this study is to provide recommendations for the development and deployment of a Scientific Data e-Infrastructure (SDI) that would enable access to heterogonous data for researchers and citizens alike. The SDI should be delivered integrating as much as possible existing AAA platforms (such as those used by the research and education community, or those used by the eScience community).
The study will therefore will identify use-cases for the SDI; it will assess existing AAA-infrastructures as well as the ability for the existing AAA-infrastructures to address these use-cases; the study will also examine the gaps in providing the necessary infrastructure to support the use-cases and explore the work that is being done in the existing AAA-infrastructures to address those needs.
The results of the study in the forms of technical and policy recommendations will be used in developing a strategy, in particular, for Scientific Data Infrastructures in Europe that will support science by providing access to quality services for researchers, funding agencies and for the public at large.
The targeted actors in the study are the research and education communities, information service providers (data centres, libraries) and e-Infrastructure/technology providers.
General Study Organization
The goal of the study will be achieved by meeting three different objectives:
Objective I – Identify use-cases and their requirements concerning AAA
During this phase of the study, use-cases will be identified via interviews with different user-groups; particularly LIBER and DEENK will collect the requirements from the library, the archive and the humanity communities on data access, data management and governance, data curation and long-term preservation as well as on AAA; TERENA and UvA will collect to requirements from the e-Science and to the networking communities.
The results of these interviews will be used to assess how the existing initiatives can meet the resulting requirements. The rationale for the SDI and its added value to access, store and preserve heterogeneous data will also be highlighted.
Objective II – Analyse existing and emerging infrastructures to address identified use-cases.
A strengths and weaknesses study (SWOT Analysis) of the existing infrastructures will be carry out; during this phase the support for the identified use-cases will also be assessed. Data protection, access issues and trust models will also be considered.
This part of the study will be driven mostly by TERENA, UvA and the experts.
This part of the study will also describe scenarios that would benefit from an integrated AAA and evaluate options to deliver an integrated and manageable AAA/AAI for the SDI (or e-Infrastructure).
The outcome of this part of the study will be:
- A complete overview of the AAA landscape in Europe (with references to US and/or other regions) and the main current trends;
- A description of the inter-operability features of the AAA systems surveyed in light of their suitability as elements of integrated infrastructures.
- An evaluation of the user-friendliness of the considered AAA infrastructures.
Objective III – Recommendations to deliver the SDI
In the third part of the study options to deliver an integrated and manageable AAI for SDI (Objective 3) will be proposed.
The outcome of this study will be:
- Provide recommendations for adapting the existing, widely used platforms and services to be fully compliant with the requirements posed by the use of data/information resources (papers, catalogues, raw data, images, etc)
- Provide recommendations on how European regulations could support such an integrated SDI;
- Provide technical recommendations for developers to favour specific technologies to ensure future inter-operability;
- Address the (organizational, legal and technical) challenges to provide pan-Europe AAA/AAI for SDI/e-Infrastructure.
The role of new technologies and standards under development in relevant bodies such as IETF, OGF, OASIS, ISO/ITU-T, IEEE as well as industry technologies (social network and others) and how these will impact of facilitate the provisioning of the SDI will be discussed.
Timetable, Deliverables, and Meetings
The study will be done in period from January 2012 till August 2012 with the following deliverables and timetable.
| Name | Deadline | Description |
|---|---|---|
| D1 - Inception report | Feb 2012 | To elaborate on the methodology that will be used to carry out the study, will provide details on the resources and articulate the objectives |
D2 - Interim study report | Apr 2012 | To cover the intermediate results for the objectives listed above, specifically:
|
| D3 - Final study report | June 2012 | To present the final results and recommendations of the study. The final study report will take into account inputs received during the Final Workshop (see below), the internal meetings with the EC and the feedback received by the consortium liaisons, such as REFED, TF-EMC2 etc. |
| Final workshop | July 2012 | To present the preliminary results to the study and receive feedback. The workshop will be organised at the Commission’s premises in Brussels. |
| D4 - Technical Report | Aug 2012 | To report on the use of resources in the performance of the contract including e.g. time-sheets on man/days consumption, travel details, use of consumables, etc. |
More information about the PAAART
The Consortium and the experts will seek feedback on the preliminary results within the interested parties, such as the libraries, eScience groups and the TERENA community (mostly within REFEDS and TF-EMC2). Public presentations on the study progress and results will be disseminated to solicit comments and discussion.
If you have any question please do not hesitate to contact the study coordinator Licia Florio (florio@terena.org) or TERENA (secretariat@terena.org).