An outlook for the national roadmap for e-infrastructures for research

Many reports by the Swedish Research Council (SRC) have identified a growing need for e-infrastructures for research. However, in Sweden, the current e-infrastructure landscape is relatively fragmented and many actors provide different kind of services at different levels. At the same time, the global Open Science policy in research pushes the need for national alignment with international policies and good national coordination between infrastructures and e-infrastructures for research. The Swedish Research Council and the University reference group for research infrastructures (URFI) identified a need for a review to get an independent advice from an international expert panel on how to deal with the growing demands for e-infrastructures for research. As a collaborative effort, SRC and URFI initiated this review in October 2017.

During the work, the expert panel observed that a re-occurring theme is the fragmentation of e-infrastructures and differences in ownership and funding mechanisms and the problems this causes. The panel has proposed eleven specific recommendations on how to continue the work for developing a coherent national strategy and roadmap for e-infrastructures for research.