E-INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATA MANAGEMENT FOR GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH

The Belmont Forum, a coalition of science funding agencies from 15 countries, is supporting an 18-month effort to assess the state of international of e-infrastructures and data management so that global change data and information can be exchanged more easily and efficiently internationally and across domains. Ultimately, this project aims to address the Belmont “Challenge” to deliver knowledge needed for action to avoid and adapt to detrimental environmental change, including extreme hazardous events.

This effort emerged from conclusions by the Belmont Forum that transformative approaches and innovative technologies are needed for heterogeneous data/information to be integrated and made interoperable for researchers in disparate fields, and for myriad uses across international, institutional, disciplinary, spatial and temporal boundaries. The project will deliver a Community Strategy and Implementation Plan to prioritize international funding opportunities and long-term policy recommendations on how the Belmont Forum can implement a more coordinated, holistic, and sustainable approach to funding and supporting global change research. The Plan is expected to serve as the foundation of future Belmont Forum funding calls for proposals in support of research science goals as well as to establish long term e-infrastructure.

More than 120 scientists, technologists, legal experts, social scientists, and others are participating in six Work Packages to develop the Plan by spring, 2015, under the broad headings of Architecture/Interoperability and Governance: Data Integration for Multidisciplinary Research; Improved Interface between Computation & Data Infrastructures; Harmonization of Global Data Infrastructure; Data Sharing; Open Data; and Capacity Building.

Recommendations are expected to lead to a more coordinated approach to policies, procedures and funding mechanisms to support e-infrastructures globally in a more sustainable way.