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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/65247
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Record Id 65247
Title Report on the Consultation Workshop Skills and Human Resources for e-Infrastructures within Horizon 2020.
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Abstract European Commission DG INFSO e-Infrastructure activity aims to support Horizon2020 objectives by working towards a single and open digital European research area where researchers can access the expertise, resources and instruments they need online. In addition to technical challenges, this requires considering the development of necessary human capital base for e-Infrastructures development, service provision and efficient scientific usage. The skills and human resources aspect has been recognised as an important part of Research Infrastructures programme under Horizon 2020. This report summarises the outcomes of a consultation workshop that was organised by DG INFSO "GÉANT and e-Infrastructures" unit to consult the stakeholders on their views of approaching these challenges. The workshop discussions highlighted cross-cutting challenges of i) new and changed skills needs which combine technical and scientific skills and require interdisciplinary thinking and communication; ii) recognizing new job profiles and tasks rising from the emergence of computing intensive and data-driven science with integral role of e-infrastructures; iii) need for effective European level collaboration and coordination to avoid duplication of efforts and join the forces for developing high quality human capital for e-infrastructures. Furthermore, there are specific challenges relating to the skills and human resources for i) e-infrastructures development, ii) digital research service provision, iii) scientific usage of e-infrastructures, and iv) the institutional strategies for effectively tackling the human resources challenges. During the consultation, several suggestions for promoting skills and human resources for einfrastructures were raised. It is necessary to better map the current situation and future needs, and support recognizing and establishing new job profiles and career paths. Specific investment should be addressed to innovating new education and training approaches: creating new specific curricula for e-infrastructures personnel; integrating technical and scientific aspects into cross-disciplinary curricula; encouraging collaborative mindset and computational thinking into education already from early age; on-the-job learning through knowledge transfer from and between experts in terms of short-term courses and staff exchanges. These should be supplemented by encouraging 'communities of practice' between e-infrastructures actors, including developers, operators and scientific users. Training development should be supported by developing accreditation mechanism for certifying high-quality courses, and by implementing collaborative repositories for best practices, training materials and supporting e-science and e-infrastructure tools and approaches. These require institutional strategies, which should be aligned with European level strategies developed in multistakeholder collaboration, including participants both from academia and industry. Several concrete recommendations for supporting the suggested development aspects with einfrastructures activities under Horizon 2020 were devised. It was considered important to have both specific and integrated activities to support skills and human resources aspects within the einfrastructures projects. The suggested measures include several concrete topics for project calls, specific studies and support activities, conditions and elements to be integrated in project selection and reviews, and overall leadership and advocacy activities to be implemented by the EC on this field, in collaboration with stakeholders.
Organisation ESC , STFC , ESC-SCT
Keywords skills , training , Archaeology , e-infrastructure , human
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Language English (EN)
Type Details URI(s) Local file(s) Year
Report 2012. report_human_skills.pdf 2012