News & Events

Accoridng to an article published on Research Africa, the EU has formally approved rules on open data, which will allow the re-use of public sector information including research results.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU), a document describing a bilateral agreement, was signed between CHAIN-REDS project and iMENTORS on June 2013 indicating an intended common line of action. The two projects have a common interest in a close co-operation in order to achieve their respective objectives. This MoU specifies the way in which such cooperation will be undertaken.

What level of connectivity, types of networks, data infrastructures, e-tools, and projects etc.are currently available for researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa? One European FP-7 funded project is starting to map this knowledge in a virtual observatory.

Read more on iMENTORS at the Projects website

According to an article published on Primeur Weekly Magazine, Six of the world's leading research and education (R&E) networks and two commercial partners have demonstrated for the first time a Transatlantic 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps or one billion bits per second) transmission link for research and education between North America and Europe during the TERENA Networking Conference 2013 (TNC2013), held in Maastricht, The Netherlands. These demonstrations showcased emerging technologies and advanced applications for science, research and education.

The PRACE Scientific Conference 2013, organized by the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) takes place on Sunday, 16 June, in Leipzig, Germany at the Congress Center Leipzig, Hall 4.

Governments and research institutions need to take a more nuanced approach to researcher mobility and move away from viewing it as an end in itself, a Dublin conference on the topic has been told.

For many researchers, geographic mobility can even be undesirable, forced upon them by economic conditions, participants heard at the Researcher Careers and Mobility Conference, which was held on 14 and 15 May under the Irish presidency of the Council of Ministers.

According to an artcile published on Reasearch Africa, Miguel Jorge, a member of the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations and a chemical engineer at the University of Strathclyde, said that a large group of researchers find themselves in precarious positions with short-term contracts, and must move around to find work.

IST Africa Stakeholder workshop: we have carried out a successful stakeholder’s workshop following iMENTORS panel at the IST Africa conference, where the audience provided invaluable feedback on the functionalities that were available on the platform, and made several recommendations leading us to develop and introduce several new additions in terms of functionalities in the Beta version.
Objectives
•    Inform about the iMENTORS project (Nairobi and Dar es Salaam).
•    Learn from others re. eInfrastructures and related project issues (Nairobi).
•    Get stakeholder views (Dar es Salaam (primarily) and Nairobi).

                                                              Copyright © 2002 - 2013 IST-Africa Initiative

The PRACE Annual Report 2012 is now available for download and online reading

http://www.prace-ri.eu/PRACE-Annual-Report

RDA Europe Workshop prior to the RDA Plenary in Washington

10 September 2013, RZG Munich - Garching

The Research Data Alliance (http://rd-alliance.org) aims to facilitate the global research data sharing and exchange. This international effort encourages increasing interest among people who wish to participate to global research data initiatives. There is a parallelism of community based harmonization approaches, including worldwide active communities, stimulated by answering the big scientific and societal challenges and driven by the need to address cross-disciplinary challenges. The iCORDI (www.icordi.eu) project is the European plugin into global RDA activities and is the organiser of this workshop.

What level of connectivity, types of networks, data infrastructures, e-tools, and projects etc.are currently available for researchers  in Sub-Saharan Africa?  One European FP-7 funded project is starting to map this knowledge in a virtual observatory.

e-ScienceTalk, is delighted to have just signed an Memorandum of Understanding with iMENTORS. Check out iMENTORS Facebook page here and Twitter stream (@i-mentors). 

iMENTORS's first step is to gather valuable stakeholder feedback to define the most appropriate criteria in evaluating e-infrastructure projects. So please do help them by filling in the survey (http://bit.ly/YF5GBV).

According to an artilcle published on Primeur Weekly magazine, data sharing should be considered normal research practice, in fact not sharing should be considered malpractice. Research funders and universities should support and encourage data sharing. There are a number of important aspects to consider when making data count in research and evaluation procedures. Metrics are a necessary tool in monitoring the sharing of data sets. However, data metrics are at present not very well developed and there is not yet enough experience in what these metrics actually mean. It is important to implement the culture of sharing through codes of conducts in the scientific communities.
 

A high-level expert group on e-infrastructures was created by the iMENTORS EU co-funded project as part of complementary quality assurance to give support in enhancing the coherence and effectiveness of international actors involved in e-infrastructures development projects and initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Chair: Louis Papaemmanuel, Project Director of iMENTORS, SU

• Björn Pehrson, KTH, Sweden
• Meoli Kashorda, KENET, Kenya
• Aida Opoku-Mensah, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Copyright © 2002 - 2013 IST-Africa Initiative

The panel will consist of an open discussion on the needs and benefits of enhancing the coordination of donors and investments in e-Infrastructures in Sub Saharan Arica, and will be followed by a live demonstration of the iMENTORS platform as a tool to optimise the coordination of donors and investments in e-Infrastructures in Sub Saharan Arica.

Click here to see the Agenda

According to an article published on Science World Report, a European team of researchers is exploring new ways of using fibre-optic technology to deliver ultra-high-speed internet access to even the remotest locations in Europe, at less cost and with less impact on the environment. It is ambitious, but innovative solutions are needed to strengthen Europe's digital economy and provide jobs.
 

According to an article published on Research Fortnight, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in the process of hiring a deputy chief scientific adviser and two additional staff to support the work of its recently appointed chief scientific adviser, Robin Grimes.

According to an article published on SciDev.Net , scientists in developing countries should increase the quality of their research by publishing more good papers, not fewer, says Rafael Loyola.

Scientists in the developing world are under growing pressure to publish more every year. Some would argue that these quantitative metrics are promoting a scientific distortion, in which quantity prevails over quality — that is, publishing papers in journals with high impact factors.

According to an article published on Research, import duties, shipping and servicing costs often mean scientists in Africa pay more to conduct research than their counterparts in Europe.

With scientists’ salaries in Africa tending to be lower than in rich countries, it has been easy for funders to assume research can be done cheaply on the continent. But that is far from the truth. Science in Africa is expensive—and the poorest countries usually run up the highest costs.

The aim of the present questionnaire is to gather valuable stakeholder feedback to define the most appropriate criteria in evaluating e-infrastructure projects. By filling out this survey, you will help us build a critical component of our decision-support system. Click here to fill in the questionnaire

A Common NREN Information Model has been developed to document the work achieved by national research and education networking organisations (NRENs) around the world. A global panel that formed in January guided the work, which was a collaboration between APAN, ASREN, CANARIE, Internet2, RedCLARA, TERENA, UbuntuNet and WACREN, and built on earlier accomplishments in Europe, Asia and Latin America by TERENA, APAN and RedCLARA.

This edition of the iMENTORS newsletter gives you more in-depth insights into current issues in the world of e-infrastructure, research infrastructure, national /regional research and education networks, ICT and data. Read it online!