NeIC calls for Letters of Interest for Collaboration and Requests for Information

NeIC is preparing a new five-year strategic plan for the 2020-2025 time period. NeIC will be gathering information throughout 2018 about the directions and goals for e-infrastructure in the Nordic region. The plan will be formulated to provide the clear measurable benefits to researchers and e-infrastructure providers. We are inviting input and suggestions from the Nordic research and e-infrastructure communities in two ways, one for information that will be used by NeIC in the short term (2-3 years) and one for information that will be useful in the longer term (>5 years).

The first way is a call for Letters of Interest for Nordic e-Infrastructure collaborations that can be undertaken with NeIC. These should be for collaborations that can start in 2019 or 2020 and be similar in scope to recent collaborative projects, such as Dellingr, NICEST, NLPL, and DeepDive. We anticipate being able to start 2-3 collaborations, including new collaboration or new directions for existing collaborations.

The second way is through a request for information that can provide input to the creation of the longer-term plan. NeIC would like to receive suggestions on general directions or topics that are anticipated to become useful and of direct relevance in e-infrastructure towards the middle of the next decade. This can include general observations and suggestions or fairly specific forecasts of the e-infrastructure needs and requirements of Nordic research communities. These would be used to help NeIC set long term goals that could become strategic directions and initiatives.

The descriptions of the two ways to submit information are below, in the Open Call for Letters of Interest for Collaboration and the Request for Information for the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration strategic plan 2020-2025. We are requesting responses to one or both of these topics from e-infrastructure providers, developers and researchers around the Nordic region by 15 May 2018. The responses received will be publicly available through the NeIC website.

More information can be provided by NeIC Special Advisor Rob Pennington, rlpennington1@gmail.com NeIC Director Gudmund Høst, e-mail: Gudmund.Host@nordforsk.org, Mobile: +47 95816846.

Please send your response electronically to neic@neic.no by 15 May, 2018.

Open Call for Letters of Interest for Collaboration

Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC) – Invitation for: Letters of Interest for Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration

This is an open letter to invite research and research related communities to express interest in participating in the development of high-quality e-Infrastructure solutions supporting open science in areas of joint Nordic interest and may include partners from beyond the Nordic region. NeIC is preparing a new five-year strategic plan starting from 2020 and the submitted Letters of Interest will provide input to the creation of this long-term plan. The Letters of Interest that we receive will be used as part of the selection of new strategic areas where NeIC will focus its efforts on innovative e-Infrastructure services and collaborations.

As part of the 2016-2020 strategy, NeIC is working to be a global role model for cross-border distributed and sustainable e-infrastructure services. This vision is supported by efforts in pooling competences and sharing resources in the Nordic region and is reflected in the current set of NeIC projects. These projects include:

Nordic-Baltic Collaboration on e-Infrastructures for Biodiversity Informatics
Collaborative Infrastructure for Scientific Software development
Nordic Collaboration on resource sharing
Nordic Collaboration on e-Infrastructures for Earth System Modeling
Technical support for EISCAT_3D on network, computing and storage challenges
Nordic cloud collaboration
Implementing a Nordic virtual laboratory for Natural Language Processing
A Nordic platform for sensitive biomedical research data.
Nordic Tier-1 as one of the regional computing centres of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid

Details of these projects can be found at https://wiki.neic.no/wiki/Activities and associated wiki pages. Most of these projects are the result of responses to previous requests for Letters of Interest.

These projects support the NeIC vision by:

Supporting collaboration on e-Infrastructure for researchers in the Nordic region.
Providing added value to researchers and national e-infrastructures that aligns with national and Nordic priorities, roadmaps and goals.
Contributing to more cost-efficient development and deployment of e-Infrastructure services.
Supporting the national research communities and e-Infrastructure providers in terms of competence building, task sharing and joint operation of services.

In addition to Nordic impacts, many of these projects also have had deep connections to larger international projects in Europe and beyond. By bringing together competencies of Nordic e-Infrastructure providers and research communities, and challenging this pool of highly skilled IT experts with the requirements of Nordic research communities, new innovative services are being developed and deployed. NeIC has aimed at bringing groups together within key areas of common Nordic interest. The development of such services and collaborations has been a primary focus for NeIC.

Examples of future topics might include, but are not limited to, digitalisation, health and well-being, cybersecurity, open science, data management, digital humanities as well new phases for current NeIC projects to support new areas of research or explore new technologies. Projects are developed in collaboration with researchers and national institutions from participating countries on a cost-sharing basis. Cross disciplinary community building around digitalisation, e-science, open science and open access to data efforts that have a strongly Nordic focus may also be an area for responses.

Background and Details of Invitation

It is expected that the activities will be based on excellence in research and e-infrastructure, with participation at all levels from requirements gathering to technology development. A description of the previous process of initiating activities with NeIC is given at https://wiki.neic.no/wiki/Activity_initiation and information on the execution of a project is at https://wiki.neic.no/wiki/Project_process.

Anticipated Process

Letters of interest should be submitted to the NeIC Office by 15 May 2018.

The NeIC administration will present the letters received to the NeIC Board for discussion and input for strategy formulation. It is expected that the Board will approve an updated strategic plan for the Nordic e-Infrastructure collaboration in early 2019, and in support of this, we will engage the proposers in discussions of the new ideas that align with the proposed strategy. It is anticipated that 2-3 projects are likely to be begun in the 2019-2020 timeframe as part of the initiation of the new strategy. Additional projects are anticipated for later years. A Request for Information is being concurrently issued to aid in understanding these longer term topics.

For each selected project, NeIC will form a consortium of co-funding partners that will steer the project and engage a project manager and staff. Concrete projects within the selected area are expected to start no later than early 2020, using the submitted Letters of Interest as an important basis.

Guidelines for Submission

A Letter of Interest may be submitted in free text format with a recommended maximum length of two pages. Useful information for the assessment of Letters of Interests by NeIC includes:

A description of the research community in the Nordic countries and internationally. A brief description of the research needs. What Nordic countries are involved?
A description of the anticipated innovative e-Infrastructure and how the research community will benefit from it. How will scientific output be accelerated through the e-Infrastructure? What is the added value of developing such an e-Infrastructure in a Nordic context?
A description of the national basis for the proposed e-Infrastructure development, with reference to national strategies or roadmaps and the relevance and connections to a Nordic and international context.
A description of anticipated available resources and manpower to leverage NeIC base funding and to sustain the e-Infrastructure in the long run.
National contact persons with contact details for each Nordic country involved.
Links to additional information of relevance.

More information can be provided by NeIC Director Gudmund Høst, e-mail: Gudmund.Host@nordforsk.org, Mobile: +47 95816846.

Please indicate your interest by electronically submitting a Letter of Interest to neic@neic.no on or before 15 May, 2018. Submitted Letters of Interest will be made openly available to the public.

Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC) – Request for Information for the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration strategic plan 2020-2025

This is an open invitation to research and research related communities to provide long term (2020+) visionary information, suggestions or observations relating to the development of high-quality e-Infrastructure solutions supporting open science in areas of joint Nordic interest. NeIC is preparing a new five-year strategic plan starting from 2020 and the provided information will provide input to the creation of this long-term plan. The information that we receive will be used as part of the identification of long term strategic areas where NeIC will focus its efforts on innovative e-Infrastructure services and collaborations.

Supporting collaboration on e-Infrastructure for researchers in the Nordic region.
Providing added value to researchers and national e-infrastructures that aligns with national and Nordic priorities, roadmaps and goals.
Contributing to more cost-efficient development and deployment of e-Infrastructure services.
Supporting the national research communities and e-Infrastructure providers in terms of competence building, task sharing and joint operation of services.

These projects include:

Nordic-Baltic Collaboration on e-Infrastructures for Biodiversity Informatics
Collaborative Infrastructure for Scientific Software development
Nordic Collaboration on resource sharing
Nordic Collaboration on e-Infrastructures for Earth System Modeling
Technical support for EISCAT_3D on network, computing and storage challenges.
Nordic cloud collaboration
Implementing a Nordic virtual laboratory for Natural Language Processing
A Nordic platform for sensitive biomedical research data.
Nordic Tier-1 as one of the regional computing centres of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid

In addition to Nordic impacts, many of these projects also have deep connections to larger international projects in Europe and beyond. By bringing together competencies of Nordic e-Infrastructure providers and research communities, and challenging this pool of highly skilled IT experts with the requirements of Nordic research communities, new innovative services have been developed and deployed. NeIC has aimed at bringing such groups together within key areas of common Nordic interest. The development of such services and collaborations has been a primary focus for NeIC.

NeIC has an open call for Letters of Interest for potential new projects to begin no later than early 2020. Examples of possible future topics for projects might include, but are not limited to, digitalisation, health and well-being, cybersecurity, open science, data management, digital humanities as well new phases for current NeIC projects to support new areas of research or explore new technologies. Projects are developed in collaboration with researchers and national institutions from participating countries on a cost-sharing basis. Cross disciplinary community building around digitalisation, e-science, open science and open access to data efforts that have a strongly Nordic focus may also be an area for responses.

To complement the open call for Letters of Interest, this request for information is for input and suggestions on the longer term concepts and ideas in e-infrastructure that NeIC should consider as overarching themes or goals for innovative, broadly useful e-infrastructure to support excellent research in the Nordic region in 2025 and beyond. These concepts and ideas should not be projects per se but should be general directions or topics that are anticipated to become useful and of direct relevance by 2025, which is towards the end of the strategic plan.

An information response may be submitted in free text format with a recommended maximum length of one page.

Useful information that might be part of the information might include, but is not limited to:

A description of the research community in the Nordic countries and internationally. A brief description of the research needs. What Nordic countries might be involved? What non-Nordic countries?
A description of the anticipated innovative e-infrastructure and how the research community will benefit from it. How will scientific output be accelerated through the e-infrastructure? What is the added value of developing such an e-Infrastructure in a Nordic context?
A description of the national basis for the proposed e-Infrastructure development, with reference to national strategies or roadmaps and the relevance and connections to a Nordic and international context.
Links to additional information of relevance.