What does Research Infrastructurereally need for Data?

An e-Science infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem science

Common Operations of Environmental Research InfrastructuresENVRI

Alex HardistySchool of Computer Science & Informatics

portal.lifewatch.eu www.lifewatch.eu portal.lifewatch.eu www.lifewatch.eu

What is LifeWatch?

• European Research Infrastructure for understanding biodiversity as a whole interacting system– Exploring patterns of biodiversity and

processes of biodiversity across space/time• A geospatial data e-Infrastructure

– Distributed observatories / sensors– Data mgmt., processing and analytical tools– Computational capability and capacity– Collaborative environments– Support, training, partnering, fellowship

1800 terrestrial Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites: increasingly sensor instrumented

>200 Marine reference and focal sites, with more to come: increasingly sensor instrumented

Hundreds of millions of specimens in natural science collections: >275m now indexed, increasing at 20% p.a.

Challenge of SCALE: > 25,000 users

Plus: all kinds of small, personal, group, and departmental datasets that need to get published

portal.lifewatch.eu www.lifewatch.eu portal.lifewatch.eu www.lifewatch.eu

Challenge of HETEROGENEITY: Interconnected nature of biodiversity ideas, outputs, repositories

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Common solutions to common challengesfaced by ESFRI environmental infrastructures

(left to right, top to bottom)

Global ocean observing infrastructureSvalbard arctic Earth observing systemAircraft for global observing systemTropospheric research aircraft

Polar research icebreakerBiodiversity and ecosystem research

Multidisciplinary seafloor observatoryUpgrade of incoherent scatter facilityPlate observing systemIntegrated carbon observation system

ENVRI

Source: EC

Data generators

Datausers

Data Services

Community – specificServices

Data transferFast data transmission

Operation at remote sites

User functionalitiesVirtual Environments & Collaborative organisations

Security & Protection

Data discovery & NavigationData submission tools (meta) data tagging tools

Operational Semantic Interoperability

Workflow GeneratorKnowledge management

Virtualisation

Persistant storage capacity24/7 operation

Preservation & Sustainability (digital asset management)

AuthenticityCertification & Integrity

GUIDs

ENVRI

Source: W.Los, UvA

• Common solutions to common problems– adopted by each infrastructure through its construction phase

• Common Reference Model providing multiple ‘views’ of RI:– Science business / enterprise view, Information view,

Computational / services view, Engineering view, Technology view

• Standards, Standards, Standards– Data capture from distributed sensors, Metadata definition,

Management of high volume data, Execution of workflows, Visualization of data, Provenance and annotation, Interoperability between assets

• Common tools e.g., for data discovery and access– in a federation of distributed data repositories and

interoperating infrastructures

What do RIs REALLY need for data?

ENVRI

• Report of the High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data

• Neelie Kroes, EC Vice-President for the Digital Agenda– “... use it as a

reference point when discussing the priorities of EU research investments.”

ENVRI