We are farmers, not hunter gatherers

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This year’s All Hands Meeting has moved from Nottingham to Edinburgh, and also expanded to include the many members of the Computational Science community. With a theme of ‘crossing boundaries’, there has never been a better time to push for the greater collaboration between disciplines and roles which e-Research encourages. Examples of this type of collaboration, from both research and industry, are highlighted in this newsletter.

All of the investment in e-Research, computational science and e-Infrastructure needs to be carefully managed to ensure that it is sustainable, and that the best practices and outputs are taken forward. One example of this is the Collaborative Computational Projects which bring together leading UK expertise in key fields of computational research to tackle large-scale, scientific software development, maintenance and distribution projects. Another is the work being done at CERN to cope with the imminent switch on of the Large Hadron Collider.

OMII-UK has a valuable part to play in the sustainability story, with a position at the centre of e-Research software provision in the UK. Through the Engage initiative we have interviewed many UK researchers to build a picture of the UK research community’s use and engagement with e-Infrastructure. By raising awareness and growing communities, we improve sustainability. As Dr. Dave Snelling, the new Chair of our Board, remarked “we are farmers, not hunter-gatherers”. We should be cultivating the best software to ensure sustainability, and working with people from different backgrounds to ensure that we don’t simply improve the work of a select few, but truly bring the benefits of e-Research to a wide audience.

Neil Chue Hong.