Report of the Working Group on Virtual Research Communities for the OST e-Infrastructure Steering Group

Virtual Research Communities (VRC) are a new concept but early research suggests that they have the potential to open exciting new opportunities to collaborate in research and thus realise significant gains at institutional, national and international levels. International comparisons have revealed that the UK is well advanced in its understanding of the area and has the world’s best structured programme of developments under way. Further programmes to develop their full potential need to examine issues of human behaviour, the role of government and other policy makers and closer links with commercial organisations, as well as continuing to pursue development of technology and standards. Five inter-related programmes of work are recommended to maintain the UK’s leading position in this area, and retain our ability to carry out world-class research:1.Establish a major programme of activities to understand the behavioural and social issues associated with greater take-up and transferability of developments in VRCs. The importance of reflecting the real needs, habits, preferences and aspirations of researchers themselves cannot be underestimated (see 6.1). 2.Continue and enhance current VRE development programmes to explore and understand concepts, techniques and their applications to e-Science and research, using opportunities for joint international programmes where possible (see 6.2). 3.Extend the e-framework activities of the JISC to encompass the full range of requirements of a VRC and establish whether a single, generic framework is possible or whether several, discipline-based frameworks are necessary (see 6.3) 4.Encourage greater cooperation between research and the commercial sector to ensure good practice in computer-based collaboration in business enterprises can be transferred into e-Science, to provide a vehicle for developing user-friendly commercial VRE applications and to enhance knowledge transfer activities (see 6.4). 5.Establish a task force to monitor developments in VRCs and similar activities in e-Science to recommend to government and funding organisations how policies and reward mechanisms can be shaped to promote take-up of opportunities, and to encourage the development of young researchers able to use the full capabilities of e-Science when they enter their field (see 6.5)