Workshop on
eInfrastructures (Internet and Grids)
The new foundation for knowledge-based Societies
Roma, Accademia dei Lincei
9th December 2003

Previous Event
Athens, 12th June 2003

Background

A clear objective of the EU 6th Framework Programme is the realisation of a Grid-empowered infrastructure to create new enhanced facilities for performing research and for fostering innovation in Europe. This initiatives runs in parallel with similar ICT development programmes the US and the Asian Pacific. The establishment of such an infrastructure constitutes the foundation on which the social and political objectives of the European Research Area (ERA) will be built. and is expected to have a major future impact on industry and society. The whole concept of integrated networking and Grid infrastructures in Europe with full policy- and administrative-level support was termed recently as the EU eInfrastructure concept.

The eInfrastructure can effectively only be realised upon the integration of four distinct elements:

1. The pan-European networking infrastructure for research (GÉANT and NRENs)
2. The distributed computing, storage and data resources provided by national facilities all over Europe
3. A new generation of Grid-based middle-ware services which allow any authorised user efficiently to share resources for collaborative research work
4. A framework of administrative- and policy-level mechanisms to break down barriers related to deployment and use of new technologies

Following an event which took place under the Greek Presidency of the EU addressing these very issues, the Italian Presidency in collaboration with the European Commission is planning further initiatives to progress discussions on these topics at the European level. In particular, it will consolidate the work on the definition of a high-level committee of representatives from Grid national authorities in Europe (similar to the GEANT policy committee) aimed at monitoring and supporting on a policy advisory level the creation and use of the eInfrastructure in Europe, as well as strengthening relations with the US Cyber-Infrastructure and other similar initiatives around the world.

In this context a new event is scheduled for 9th December 2003 in Rome, Italy, at the initiative of the Italian Presidency and in co-operation with the European Commission, with the main objectives to:
• Create more awareness on the eInfrastructure initiative and involve other important actors currently missing from earlier initiatives
• Decide on concrete next steps and actions in the context of the afore-mentioned policy- and administrative-level framework in Europe across technological, administrative and national domains
• Facilitate and support the first meeting of the eInfrastructure Reflection Group. The creation of the Group was one of the recommendations arising from the Greek Presidency and it is expected that it will have been set up prior to the Rome-meeting
• Discuss and promote the establishment of links between the EU-eInfrastructure programme with similar programmes of other world regions (most notably, the US-Cyberinfrastructure). Participants in the meeting will therefore also include international representatives (e.g. NSF-officials)

One of the primary goals of the meeting, at which key players in the construction of the EU eInfrastructure will be present, is to review the perspectives and the technical and political issues related to the usage of the eInfrastructure for Science and Society at the national, European and international level.

It is the noted here that the scope of the above initiative is seen as extending beyond the time horizon of the Italian Presidency. It is, therefore, considered important relevant effort to take place in the context of the next also EU Presidency(-ies) in order for Europe not to miss the new opportunities that are arising.