0.2 Research in a connected world  (Page 2/3)

Tackling the grand challenges of many disciplines today requires the coordinated effort of groups of researchers working on different aspects of a problem. Also, individual researchers can more rapidly increase their knowledge in a particular field if they are able to become part of an international and interdisciplinary collaborative network. Instead of working on their own or only with colleagues within their own institutions, researchers now often work in collaborations with colleagues in other institutions, who can provide specialist knowledge, skills or access to resources.

e-Research provides researchers with an environment for sharing resources and facilitates collaborations by making large, distributed data sets accessible, through enabling synchronous or asynchronous collaboration across geographical distances and providing access to resources regardless of location. This opening up of research means that researchers need not be held back by their own resource constraints and can more freely participate in cutting-edge projects.

E-research technologies supporting collaboration

e-Research technologies support the research collaborations described above by introducing a model for resource sharing based on the notions of “resources” that are accessed through “services”. Resources can be computational resources such as high-performance computers, storage resources such as storage resource brokers or repositories, datasets held by data archives or even remote instruments such as radio telescopes. In order to make resources available to collaborating researchers, their owners provide services that provide a well-described interface specifying the operations that can be performed on or with a resource, e.g., submitting a compute job or accessing a set of data.

This simple underlying model of collaboration is complemented by additional functionality such as authentication and authorisation to regulate access to a resource or management functions such as resource reservation. It is important to note that the underlying model is kept simple and that any additional functionality layered on top of it is also formulated in terms of resources and services wherever possible. Using these general principles, it is possible to build a vast range of tools and applications that support collaborative research.

Computer-enabled methods of collaboration for research take many forms, including use of video conferencing, wikis, social networking websites and distributed computing itself. For example, researchers might use Access Grid for video conferencing to hold virtual meetings to discuss their projects. Access Grid and virtual research environments provide simultaneous viewing of participating groups as well as software to allow participants to interact with data on-screen. Wikis have also become a valuable collaborative tool. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the OpenWetWare website, which promotes the sharing of information between researchers working in biology, biomedical research and bioengineering using the concept of a virtual Lab Notebook. This allows researchers to publish research protocols and document experiments. It also provides information about laboratories and research groups around the world as well as courses and events of interest to the community.