International e-Research activity
Among the benefits of a well developed e-Research
infrastructure are the prospective growths in international participation in
research.
General sharing of large research instruments and data sets, with the exception of a few large projects, is not yet a reality, although many pilots are underway and show signs of expanding. Australia is exploring the possibilities and it is unclear whether the impact of international participation will be realised across all disciplines.
Other countries have acknowledged the potential of e-Research for collaboration and have put in place significant measures to enable and encourage its use.
The United Kingdom has adopted a focused approach that includes a National e-Science Centre and eight regional e-Science Centres. The e-Science Centres provide a vehicle for outreach to the wider university, industry and international communities by combining the expertise of leading experimentalists, theoreticians and computing scientists.
The United States approach consists of a number of significant initiatives that address various aspects of e-Research. Humanties, Arts, Science and Technology Collaboratory (HASTAC) is one example.
The European Union's Enabling Grids for e-Science (EGEE) Portal is 'the largest multi-disciplinary grid infrastructure in the world, which brings together more than 140 institutions to produce a reliable and scalable computing resource available to the European and global research community.'
Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Latin America also have significant activities and provide funding for e-Research projects and core enabling infrastructure.