Report from the EPSRC e-Science Pilot Projects Meeting at NeSC on Friday
25th January 2002
In response to requests from the investigators of the EPSRC e-Science Pilot
Projects, a meeting to bring the projects together was organised by the eScience Core Programme team and the National e-Science Centre (NeSC). The
purpose of the day was two-fold; for the projects to learn more about each other
(raise general awareness, build on existing links between projects, look for
commonality and ways to leverage results to avoid repetition, and to share
experience & knowledge of wider e-Science Grid issues) and to learn more about
the Core e-Science Programme and what support it could provide.
DAME – Jim Austin
RealityGrid – Peter Coveney
MyGrid – Luc Moreau & Alan Robinson
e-Science Institute – Malcolm Atkinson
e-Science Support – David Boyd
Open Discussion of e-Science Support and Training – Tony Hey (including a
discussion on Software Engineering issues from Ian Sommerville)
Issues raised included;
• Earth Observation/satellite-enabled science: This was recognised as a
major gap in an area ripe for Grid action. It was hoped that the next
NERC call would help address it. Funding from DTI and company sources
were also essential ingredients.
• Longer-term research on Grid issues: Ongoing research into Grid
issues was important. If successful the existing SR 2002 bid should help
provide research continuity.
• Security: Security of the access grid would be one of the priority issues
to be covered in Grid development
• IPR/Licensing: It would be helpful for a policy on IPR and licensing
issues to be formulated and disseminated. There was understandable
nervousness on the part of major distributed companies involved, which
tended towards a company intranet (and thus non-public) model for their
solutions. Therefore "open standard" rather than true open source tended
to become the working model. A successful workshop had been held by
•
BBSRC for projects to discuss and learn about the issues involved. The
Director would consider next steps including a possible workshop for the
projects, in consultation with Alan Robinson.
Technical support managers - Liaison: There was a need for the
Managers from different projects to liaise on issues such as technical
standards. Malcolm Atkinson and the Manchester team would consider
how best to do this.
Grid Network Team – David Hutchison
Comb-e-Chem – Jeremy Frey (including an e-Science demonstration by Mike
Surridge)
Discovery Net – Yike Guo and John Hassard
Geodise – Simon Cox
Discussion – Malcolm Atkinson
Issues arising from the discussion included;
• NeSC will provide a secure web site for the Pilot projects
• The issue of developing a “pool” of open-source software that has arisen
from the e-Science Pilot projects was raised; plus how to curate/support
it? (and the issue of funding this).
• MA repeated the offer of arranging speakers/meetings as necessary,
provided the Pilot projects let him know what they required. This was
particularly true of the envisaged Research Festival (August 2002).