Difference between revisions of "Talk:Ecosystem Approach Community of Practice: D4Science Business model proposal"

Revision as of 09:38, 9 January 2013

Inputs to iMarine SB call 09/01/2013 on Sustainability

Context and summary from previous consortium discussions/meetings

Based on previous inputs to GA and Board2 meetings (Sept. 2012), the general directions for a business model in a medium term prospect are confirmed as being:

1) Fundamentally, D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative. / iMarine is a public funded initiative in support to science. There will be a need for public funding support beyond the end of iMarine (2014) over at least two further cycles (ie at least 4-6 years): the consortium (or those who wish to take part) will have to negotiate ‘big picture’ science interactions at EU level and move towards becoming all or part of a global platform, with a financing basis increasingly derived from regional, national and development programme funding linked to the value of its downstream products.

2) This publicly funded initiative relies on: a] a Public partnership model, with two envisaged levels: D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative. for the technology partners, and iMarine for the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. partnership level (iMarine being one example of CoPCommunity of Practice., co-existing with other CoPs such as OpenBio) b] the prospect for a EU FP8 funding for consolidating the public partnership model, which could be orientated towards European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as per indications provided at the "All EU marine knowledge meeting".

The public partnership model is to be understood as a non commercial exploitation, largely based on statements of converging interests, sense of shared purpose, or pursuance of synergetical goals among partners, on which basis in-kind or monetary resources are provided by the partners: each community brings resources (data, software, hardware, administration, networks, projects, ...) according to its own expertise, primary interest, and voluntary commitment.

Context and summary from "all marine knowledge meeting"

ESFRI: a formal body which is research driven

ERIC: An ERIC is a legal instrument at EU level to facilitate the joint establishment and operation of research infrastructure (RI) of european interest. It catters for a Legal Personality and qualifies as an international organization. Members can be EU MS (min three) and International Organizations. RI projects aim at real strategy and governance, and are about legal issues, development of business plans, and functional engineering.

DG-RESEACH and INNOVATION are pushing the various infrastructures to work together in order to implement common solution. In this respect, iMarine is expected to work with [ENVRI|http://www.egi.eu/about/EGI.eu/EGI.eu_projects/ENVRI.html] . The ENVRI project, 'Common Operations of Environmental Research Infrastructures' is a collaboration in the ESFRI Environment Cluster, with support from ICT experts, to develop common e-science components and services for their facilities. The results will speed up the construction of these infrastructures and will allow scientists to use the data and software from each facility to enable multi-disciplinary science.

Examples:

ASSEMBLE was a proof of concept for an Association of European Marine Biological Laboratories (the project made clear that there was a good demand), and turned into the EMBRC proejct while enlarging to many more institute partners (15). For reference, EMBRC WPs are:

Logistical work: - WP2 Planning for top quality research services;

- WP3 Planning e-infrastructure

- WP4 Construction plans

Support action (A third of the effort is going to the business plan):

- WP5 Legal work

- WP6 Financial work (e.g. includes common methodology to cost and price access to EMBRC services)

- WP7 Risk management and quality assurance

Other notes about ASSEMBLE and EMBRC:

- 1/2 way through the ASSEMBLE project, had to be placed on the ESFRI road map

- EMBRC also had to be partially self funded (eg harware provided by the national elements)

- EMBRC have a core Secretariat with staff seconded from participating institutions

Other WPs references from EUROMARINE (a Coordination action in support of a network of excellence, but does what an ESFRI project would do):

- WP2 Legal work and business plan (based on questionnaire sent to all members - results in a mixed model including a legal entity controlled by Membership)

- WP3 Marine Research Strategy (in order to develop and share common objective and vision)

- WP4 Scientific data integration (inventory of existing data systems towards long term integration of data)

Possible directions for iMarine sustainability

Just like ASSEMBLE was a proof of concept for the ensuing EMBRC project, iMarine should raise enough interest among existing community partners so to be seen as the proof of concept of a future application to EU FP8 call for funding. Depending on further findings and interest raised with existing frameworks, such application could aim at an ERIC, or an ENVRI, and would seek at becoming all or part of a European platform (but with a global capacity) .

In this context, we should sort out and develop key messages regarding:

- the specificity of D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative. level (e.g. provider of integrated IT and data resources, of VREVirtual Research Environment. capacities)

- the specificity of iMarine CoPCommunity of Practice. level (e.g. with respect to other EU marine projects, and considering its partners, has really a global scope, and an EA concern).

In this context, the key frameworks to draw alliance with so to consolidate common solutions are (in order of priority, according to Marc - for discussion):

At iMarine EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. level:

- DG-MARE/FISHERIES

- DG-MARE/EMODNET

- EMODNET/VLIZ

- EUROMARINE

- EMODNET/SEADATANET

and community standard setting bodies

- TDWG

Other initiatives which were mentioned, for which I have no real opinion: - GMES, GEOSS, MSFD, JERICHO

Note: All together they contribute towards a EOOS (European Oceans Observing System)

At Technology level (D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative.)

- Pursue alliances with private Cloud computing providers such as MS

- Develop data center services capacity to host and maintain the operational version of the infrastructure (through alliance with a private company? or through establishment of a legal entity?)

- Develop alliances with private companies which will acquire deep knowledge in gCube and will be able to allocate flexibly human resources for required software developments.

- Develop network of business expertise (e.g. the consultants currently involved in iMarine initiative) who will contribute to sell the e-infrastructure capacities.

- Declare strong adherence with/contribution to the INSPIRE standard setting initiative

- Explore COOPEUS, framework of transatlantic collaboration for common standards and interoperability

Short term actions:

Hire business plan experts

(see ITER project)

Seek statements of interest from institutions for public partnership model

develop a draft questionnaire for discussion at Board3 meeting dispatch final questionnaire to iMarine partners for review at Board4 dispatch questionnaire to other potentially interested institutions for review by Board5

Demonstrate that there is a demand

Feed the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. x Products page, for review by Board3

Organize event with the potential partners

prepare key messages about D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative. and iMarine

Ensure iMarine is positionned in a JPI pilot action

Pilot actions are presented by MS. iMarine has to lobby JPI MS representatives. In the context of iMarine, MS of choice could be France or Italy.