Adoption of e-Research Technologies

The success of the UK e-Science Core programme has encouraged other disciplines -- notably within the social sciences and the arts and humanities -- to explore the benefits of e-Research approaches and technologies. The vision is that e-Infrastructure should be available to underpin all research activities, regardless of discipline, location, organisational context, etc. That is, e-Infrastructure should become the "seen but unnoticed" fabric that underpins research activities of any kind, be it high energy physics in big multinational organisations like CERN or the study of environmental changes conducted in schools and at home. However, before this vision of "democratic eResearch" can be realised, there are significant obstacles to be overcome. These relate to issues such as the commodification of Grid technologies, the shaping of national infrastructures and organisational context as well as developments within research traditions.

The aim of the theme is to study factors that may inhibit or enable the wider diffusion and adoption of e-Research technologies and tools. We are interested to devise strategies for furthering the use of e-Infrastructures based on this understanding.

Theme events:

• eSI Public Lecture: "Adoption and Sustainability of e-Research Technologies: From prototype to commodity" by Alex Voss
• Realising and Coordinating e-Research Endeavours
• International Workshop on Virtual Research Environments and Collaborative Work Environments
• Fostering e-Infrastructure: from user-designer relations to community engagement
• JISC Community Engagement Working Meeting: UK One-Stop-Shop
• eSI Public Lecture: "Adoption and Sustainability of e-Research Technologies: empirical findings and some recommendations" by Alex Voss