Rising to the Big Data Challenge: Global Research Data Infrastructures 2020

Research is increasingly global and multi-disciplinary. Advances in computing technology are empowering scientists to collect massive amounts of data, marking an important step towards solving complex problems like global climate change and uncovering secrets hidden in genes. Data intensive computing capabilities are fundamental for advancing data-intensive sciences, as well as huge volumes of complex data related to energy, health and national security.

The challenge of global food security through the twenty-first century is inextricably bound up with other global issues, most notably climate change, population growth and the need to sustainably manage the world's rapidly growing demand for energy and water, calling for cross-cutting approaches. Interdisciplinary studies have the potential to empower scientific teams to previously impossible experiments, pushing the boundaries of our knowledge in areas as diverse as brain simulations, astronomy and seismography to forecast the effects of earthquakes. "Big data" is also transforming the research landscape for the humanities and social sciences. What new, computationally-based research methods might we apply now that we have massive databases of materials, from digitised books, newspapers and music to transactional data like web searches and sensor data?

Data-intensive research poses both new opportunities and challenges, calling for a new way of dealing with data. For the European Union, preparing for this scientific digital challenge is fundamental for competitiveness. The Research Data Infrastructure envisioned by GRDI2020 (www.grdi2020.eu) is an entire digital environment enabling a variety of interactions among data management systems, digital data libraries, research libraries, data collections, data tools and communities of research alongside the organisational practices of the people and institutions using it. Emphasis is placed on handling knowledge freely and dynamically to enable research communities to strike a balance between competition and co-operation.

The GRDI2020 Workshop on 'Global Research Data Infrastructures: The Big Data Challenge', 18-19 October 2011 (http://tinyurl.com/3lwp4jd) in Brussels brings to the table forward-thinking policy makers and world-renown experts from diverse fields to chart a course for GRDI. Questions addressed during the Workshop span the role of international cooperation in shaping visions for GRDI; the policy measures underpinning this sea-change; organisational and technological challenges that need overcoming and innovation that is being spurred by new approaches to scientific data management and distributed computing.

About GRDI2020

GRDI2020 is a Coordinated Action funded by the GÉANT and e-Infrastructures Unit of DG INSFO, European Commission. GRDI2020 is producing a roadmap to facilitate the development of next-generation global data research infrastructures that are needed to support a broad set of communities for enhanced knowledge generation and to address grand global challenges more effectively. It does this by bringing together experts with a proven track record in developing complex information infrastructures. This cross-fertilisation ensures research data infrastructures bring the best of both worlds to enhance data intensive and interdisciplinary research and international co-operation.