e-IRG White Paper 2013

The e-IRG Roadmap 2012 outlines a need for a European “e-Infrastructure Commons” for knowledge, innovation and science in order to meet the challenges of implementing the EU’s 2020 Strategy. To implement such an e-Infrastructure Commons, a high degree of collaboration and standardisation is required. Furthermore, to provide users with leading edge services, a constant innovation at all levels is necessary. A certain degree of competition helps to ensure high quality of services and effective service provision. As a living ecosystem, an e-Infrastructure Commons must be flexible and able to change dynamically, efficiently, and in a future-proof manner. e-Infrastructures for research will only provide real value if they can provide services which are way ahead of what commercial providers can offer. In order to achieve all this, an ecosystem of different organisations is needed, both at the national and international levels, each with their own focus but also with effective coordination between them.