Common use of Strategic impact Clause in Contracts

Strategic impact. The important scientific and social impacts of dissemination projects that span national and international borders were outlined by Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, Head of Unit “GÉANT & e-Infrastructures, Directorate General for Information Society and Media, European Commission” in the GridBriefing Annual Report 2008-20097, produced by GridTalk: “Today, grid e-Infrastructures are facing significant challenges such as sustainability and the transition to a more user-driven and service-centric model. Grid computing has already engaged in the process of transitioning to a sustainable model of operation that would integrate at European level the corresponding national operations. This new pan-European organisation model will open grid e-Infrastructures to all scientific disciplines and complement national funding strategies in support of e-Science. Thanks to grid computing many prominent results have been achieved that directly affect people’s lives. It is essential to show the world and especially European citizens how European-funded research e-Infrastructures are working for them. Responsible and open communication plays an important role in ensuring public support of the European grid e-Infrastructures activities. This is where projects like GridTalk, disseminating the benefits, success stories and challenges of grid computing to a wider audience, play an important role. The effective communication of complex technical or scientific matters to a wider audience not only increases the public appreciation and support to scientific progress but also inspires the younger generations to get involved in the research process.” The need for dissemination projects to communicate the success stories and societal impact of grid computing and other EC funded e-Infrastructures has not diminished since GridTalk started in April 2008, and in fact with the transition to a new model for grid computing in Europe through the European Grid Infrastructure this is more important than ever. While dissemination will be carried out very effectively by XXX.xx and the National Grid Initiatives in their own countries, there will still exist a strong need to offer a global picture of this field to the scientific community and the general public. E-ScienceTalk will be ideally placed to communicate this overview and its global context to the wide-ranging audiences already established for its products through the GridTalk project, and earlier in the case of the GridCafé and iSGTW, which have built up a loyal following over a number of years. The ability to reach out to these audiences will be enhanced during e-ScienceTalk by co-development with the Real Time Monitor of GridPP and Imperial College, London, which has proved to be an essential tool for communicating the global spread and complexity of the grid computing network to the general public and to key policy makers. As mentioned by Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, it is not only important to increase public appreciation and support for scientific progress but also to inspire the younger generations to get involved. Communicating to university students and final year high school students will be an aim for e-ScienceTalk, which is again ideally placed to reach out to the scientists and consumers of e-Infrastructures of the future. GridCafé is already seen as an important source of information for educators.8 Adding more information about the human face of grid computing to the global GridGuide will offer useful careers-based information to students thinking of a career in science, using profiles of people already working in grid computing and e-Infrastructures to answer questions such as: what qualifications do you need, what sort of careers are possible and where are the best places to work? Similarly, by marketing the e-ScienceTalk products on specialist and social media sites such as Slashdot, Facebook, Nature Networks, Twitter and BoingBoing, e-ScienceTalk will be able to reach a younger audience, who are significant users of these technologies. For example, in Europe's Digital Competitiveness Report, Volume 1: i2010 − Annual Information Society Report 2009, the 16-25 age group 7 GridBriefing Annual Report 2008-2009, GridTalk 8 EU Deliverable D4.3 “Feedback on GridTalk”, 24 April 2009 were shown to be nearly twice as likely to have posted messages on chat rooms and forums than the average European,9 demonstrating their higher level of digital literacy compared to other age groups. The following sections consider each of the expected impacts of the section of the FP7 Capacities Work Programme for Infrastructures covering “Support for policy development and programme implementation, including support to emerging needs.” Each section below outlines how e-ScienceTalk will contribute to these expected impacts. Support measures are expected to strengthen the development of a European policy for research infrastructures and to address specific needs for international cooperation in this field, thus achieving xxxxxxxx xxxx and driving global policies. The importance of achieving xxxxxxxx xxxx in order to drive global e-Infrastructure policies is illustrated by eResearch2020, a study that is currently investigating the types of e-Infrastructure, organisational structures, modes of collaboration and technological developments that are most effective in supporting virtual research organisations in different fields. Analysis from the study will yield a roadmap of strategies that will guide public policies and enhance the uptake and use of e-infrastructure in science. Preliminary results reported at the 7th Concertation Meeting in Brussels, 13 October 200910 showed that e-Infrastructures allow for increased collaboration and are most important to international and multi-disciplinary researchers. They also support those in novel, dynamic and collaborative fields and actually tend to lower technical barriers to accessing computing resources for international projects, compared to national projects. Researchers were asked to rate the impact of international e-Infrastructures compared to national resources, and rated the international structures higher in all categories: tasks are accomplished quicker, output is greater, costs are lower, access to resources is better, analysis is faster, researchers can work on more problems than before, and they have more publications accepted as a result. Once the final results of the research are published, this will give a further clear message for researchers that e-Infrastructures are beneficial to their research and that access to sustainable resources of this type is essential to carry out research faster and more cheaply, to produce more results and be published more widely. This message can be sent out through articles and announcements in iSGTW, via Nature Networks and through posts on the GridCast blog, which are all read by the research community. By communicating these benefits clearly, and by including concrete examples of the wide range of user communities already relying on these technologies, this will help to convince new or fledging users of grid and e-Infrastructures that it is important to invest their time in these technologies. In this way, e-ScienceTalk will help to achieve a xxxxxxxx xxxx within the research community that uses these types of resources, supporting e-Science in Europe through to 2020.