EC publishes the draft European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures

The European Commission has published a "European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures".  e-IRG was one of the contributors to this charter.  Research Infrastructures include e-Infrastructures such as PRACE (supercomputers), GEANT (Networking), EGI (Cloud federation), IDGF (Crowd computing) and many others. The Charter sets the basis for a common understanding of what an Access policy for Research Infrastructures is and of its underlying implications.

 

Access to an infrastructure means how users can get access to an e-infrastructure. This includes how they can qualify to use the infrastructure. For instance with PRACE, they have to pass a peer review system. Others are open to all university personnel and students. This also encourages the different infrastructures to ensure a maximum level of transparency of their Access processes and procedures.

 

The Charter is not legally binding. It is up to the infrastructure operators - including the ones mentioned as examples above - whether they will implement it or not.

 

The Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures is developed by the Commission in close cooperation with the ESFRI, the e-IRG and the ERA Stakeholder Organisations (CESAER, EARTO, EUA, LERU, NordForsk and Science Europe). The European Commission, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group and the European Research Area stakeholder organisations will regularly assess the relevance and applicability of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.

By Leslie Versweyveld