Riding the wave
How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data
Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data
A submission to the European Commission 
October 2010
© European Union, 2010
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the official European Commission's view on the subject.
Printed by Osmotica.it
The members of the HLG would like to thank the project GRDI2020 for supporting the meetings
logistics and the arrangements for the publication of the final report. GRDI2020 is a coordination
action project funded by the European Seventh Framework Programme for Research and
Development (FP7) under Grant Agreement RI-246682.
Riding the wave
How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data
Final report of the High level Expert Group on Scientific Data 
A submission to the European Commission
October 2010
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The Digital Agenda for Europe outlines policiesand actions to maximise the benefit of thedigital revolution for all. Supporting research
and innovation is a key priority of the Agenda,
essential if we want to establish a flourishing digital
economy by 2020.
Scientific research is supported by its infrastructures:
technical tools and instruments and socio-economic
systems for organising and sharing knowledge.
These have been in constant change for many
centuries reflecting advances in technology and
change in political systems. Key inventions like the
microscope or the telescope resulted in huge
scientific progress by allowing the validation or
rejection of theories; and the invention of book
printing in the 15th century and the organisation of
knowledge in research libraries allowed
unprecedented access to knowledge. 
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
are the most recent transformational factors in
science. They enable close and almost instantaneous
collaboration between scientists all over the world
and they provide access to unprecedented volumes
of scientific information that can in turn be
processed on powerful computational platforms.
Many younger scientific disciplines would not even
Unlocking the full value of scientific data
“Information and
Communication
Technologies (ICT) are
the most recent
transformational factors
in science. “
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data2
exist without access to these technologies. Today ICT-
based infrastructures (e-infrastructures) have
become an essential foundation of all research and
innovation.
This is reflected in the European Commission and EU
Member States investing in different domains of e-
infrastructures. Together we have been working on
connecting researchers, scholars, educators and
students through high speed research networks like
GÉANT, providing access to shared grid and cloud
computing facilities, and developing
supercomputing capacity for very demanding
applications through the European partnership
PRACE. To complement these developments, Europe
is putting the seeds for the emergence of a robust
platform for access and preservation of scientific
information.
All these are and will remain important elements
underpinning European research and innovation
policies. However, with robust infrastructure for data
transmission and data processing in place, we can
now start to think about the next step: data itself. My
vision is a scientific community that does not waste
resources on recreating data that have already been
produced, in particular if public money has helped
to collect those data in the first place. Scientists
should be able to concentrate on the best ways to
make use of data. Data become an infrastructure
that scientists can use on their way to new frontiers. 
Making this a reality is a more difficult task than it
may seem. To collect, curate, preserve and make
available ever-increasing amounts of scientific data,
new types of infrastructures will be needed. The
potential benefits are enormous but the same is
true for the costs. We therefore need to lay the right
foundations and the sooner we start the better. This
report of the High-Level Group on Scientific Data
will be an invaluable input for formulating our
research and research-infrastructure policies. I invite
every citizen and every organisation involved in
scientific research to take note of this report and to
use it as a reference point when discussing the
priorities of EU research investments.
Neelie Kroes
Vice-President of the European Commission,
responsible for the Digital Agenda
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 3
FROM THE CHAIR
On the challenges ahead
Ipresent the report of the High Level Group on the future of scientific data. Theimportance of facing up to the challenges before us is crucial if Europeanresearch is to remain at the leading edge globally. 
The resulting actions that we propose will affect all areas of research, not just big
science. This range has been reflected in the group as we have considered the
impact on, for example, the humanities, publishing, and bio-diversity in addition
to large international science facilities. Indeed, getting it right will affect the way
research is done in the future and will be instrumental in ensuring that the
challenges before us are solved in a holistic way rather than allowing individual
disciplines to dig entrenched positions. Just how students will be trained in the
future, or how the profession of “data scientist” will be developed, are among the
questions the resolution of which is  still evolving and will present intellectual
challenges for both privately and publicly supported research. Critical to
everything is how trust can not only be fostered but ensured so that the “Fifth
Freedom of Knowledge” is pursued with vigour for the good of all society. 
In addition to the High Level Group coming from a diversity of backgrounds, the
liveliness of the discussions and the working atmosphere have been a delight and
I thank the members for their excellent contributions. Also my thanks to the
Commission staff who have entered into the debate with an exemplary degree of
open-mindedness. Finally I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the
various people who came to the group to share their thoughts and experience
with us from around the world, to rapporteur David Giaretta who brought the
discussions together into a coherent structure and action plan, and to Richard
Hudson who miraculously took our stream of consciousness ideas and turned
them into a coherent report. 
John Wood
Chair
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY               
Afundamental characteristic of our age is therising tide of data – global, diverse, valuableand complex. In the realm of science, this is
both an opportunity and a challenge. This report,
prepared for the European Commission’s
Directorate-General for Information Society and
Media, identifies the benefits and costs of
accelerating the development of a fully functional e-
infrastructure for scientific data – a system already
emerging piecemeal and spontaneously across the
globe, but now in need of a far-seeing, global
framework. The outcome will be a vital scientific
asset: flexible, reliable, efficient, cross-disciplinary
and cross-border.  
The benefits are broad. With a proper scientific e-
infrastructure, researchers in different domains can
collaborate on the same data set, finding new
insights. They can share a data set easily across the
globe, but also protect its integrity and ownership.
They can use, re-use and combine data, increasing
productivity. They can more easily solve today’s
Grand Challenges, such as climate change and
energy supply. Indeed, they can engage in whole
new forms of scientific inquiry, made possible by
the unimaginable power of the e-infrastructure to
find correlations, draw inferences and trade ideas
and information at a scale we are only beginning to
see. For society as a whole, this is beneficial. It
empowers amateurs to contribute more easily to
the scientific process, politicians to govern more
effectively with solid evidence, and the European
and global economy to expand.
But there are many challenges. How can we
organise such a fiendishly complicated global effort,
without hindering its flexibility and openness? How
do we incentivise researchers, companies, and
individuals to contribute their own data to the 
e-infrastructure – while still trusting that they can
protect their privacy or ownership? How can we
manage to preserve all this data, despite changing
technologies and needs? How to convey the context
and provenance of the data? How to pay for it all?
Our vision is a scientific e-infrastructure that
supports seamless access, use, re-use, and trust of
data. In a sense, the physical and technical
infrastructure becomes invisible and the data
themselves become the infrastructure – a valuable
asset, on which science, technology, the economy
and society can advance. Our vision is that, by 2030:
 All stakeholders, from scientists to national
authorities to the general public, are aware of the
critical importance of conserving and sharing
reliable data produced during the scientific
process.
 Researchers and practitioners from any discipline
are able to find, access and process the data they
need. They can be confident in their ability to use
and understand data, and they can evaluate the
degree to which that data can be trusted.
 Producers of data benefit from opening it to
broad access, and prefer to deposit their data
with confidence in reliable repositories. A
framework of repositories work to international
standards, to ensure they are trustworthy.
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 Public funding rises, because funding bodies
have confidence that their investments in
research are paying back extra dividends to
society, through increased use and re-use of
publicly generated data. 
  The innovative power of industry and enterprise
is harnessed by clear and efficient arrangements
for exchange of data between private and public
sectors, allowing appropriate returns to both.  
 The public has access to and can make creative
use of the huge amount of data available; it can
also contribute to the data store and enrich it. All
can be adequately educated and prepared to
benefit from this abundance of information. 
 Policy makers are able to make decisions based
on solid evidence, and can monitor the impacts
of these decisions. Government becomes more
trustworthy.
 Global governance promotes international trust
and interoperability. 
There is a clear role for government in all this; and
we offer a short-list of action by various EU
institutions – building on work already begun across
the EU in recent years, and complementing efforts in
the US, Japan and elsewhere in the world. 
1. Develop an international framework for a
Collaborative Data Infrastructure
The emerging infrastructure for scientific data must
be flexible but reliable, secure yet open, local and
global, affordable yet high-performance. There is no
one technology that can achieve it all. So we need a
broad, conceptual framework for how different
companies, institutes, universities, governments and
individuals would interact with the system. We call
this framework a Collaborative Data Infrastructure,
and we urge the European Commission to accelerate
efforts – in Europe and around the globe – to make it
real.
2. Earmark additional funds for scientific e-
infrastructure 
Development of e-infrastructure for scientific data
will cost money, obviously – and as there is a
significant element of public good in this, so there
must be a significant degree of public support. One
obvious source is found in the EU’s Structural Funds
– a portion of the budget mostly used to build roads,
industrial parks and other key infrastructure,
targeted at those regions of Europe most in need.
Already, a portion of this budget is earmarked for
research and innovation, including digital
infrastructure. We call upon the European Council to
expand the funding possibilities.
3. Develop and use new ways to measure
data value, and reward those who
contribute it
If we are to encourage broader use, and re-use, of
scientific data we need more, better ways to
measure its impact and quality. We urge the
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European Commission to lead the study of how to
create meaningful metrics, in collaboration with the
‘power users’ in industry and academia, and in
cooperation with international bodies.
4. Train a new generation of data scientists,
and broaden public understanding
We urge that the European Commission promote,
and the member-states adopt, new policies to foster
the development of advanced-degree programmes
at our major universities for the emerging field of
data scientist. We also urge the member-states to
include data management and governance
considerations in the curricula of their secondary
schools, as part of the IT familiarisation programmes
that are becoming common in European education.
5. Create incentives for green technologies
in the data infrastructure
Computers use energy; and as the tide of scientific
data rises further the energy consumption risks rising
in tandem. We urge the European institutions, as
they review plans for CO2 management and energy
efficiency, to consider the impact of e-infrastructure
and prepare policies now that will ensure we have
the necessary resources to perform science.
6. Establish a high-level, inter-ministerial
group on a global level to plan for data
infrastructure
It makes no sense for one country or region to act
alone. We urge the European Commission to identify
a group of international representatives who could
meet regularly to discuss the global governance of
scientific e-infrastructure. It should also host the first
such meeting.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 7
We all experience it: a rising tide of information, sweeping across ourprofessions, our families, our globe. We create it, transmit it, store it,receive it, consume it – and then, often, reprocess it to start the cycle
all over again. It gives us power unprecedented in human history to understand
and control our world. But, equally, it challenges our institutions, upsets our
work habits and imposes unpredictable stresses upon our lives and societies. 
Science is both producer and consumer of this data– and we urgently call on our
political leaders to grasp the opportunities it creates. Success can create
economic growth and a fairer, happier society. Failure will undermine Europe’s
competitiveness and endanger social progress. Knowledge is power; Europe
must manage the digital assets its researchers generate.
Science has a pivotal role in this phenomenon, and this report focuses on the
infrastructure needed to manage scientific data. Our purpose is to provide a
vision and action plan. 
Why the focus on scientific data? 
For starters, science is a cause of this data wave. Scientific discovery led to the
microprocessors, optical fibres and storage media with which we create, move
and store the data. And the continuing process of scientific discovery – in all
disciplines from astronomy to economics – is generating a growing share of that
new data.  In one day, a high-throughput DNA-sequencing machine can read
about 26 billion characters of the human genetic code. That translates into 9
terabytes – or 9 trillion data units – in the course of one year; alongside it is a
wealth of related information that can be 20 times more voluminous. The total
data flow: more than 20 new US Libraries of Congress each and every year. That
is from one specialised instrument, in one scientific sub-discipline; enlarge that
picture across all of science, across the world, and you start to see the dimension
of the opportunity and challenge presented.
Most importantly, however, our focus is on scientific data because, when the
information is so abundant, the very nature of research starts to change. A
I. Riding the wave
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data8
feedback loop between researchers and research results changes the pace and
direction of discovery.  The “virtual lab” is already real, with the ability to
undertake experiments on large instruments in other continents remotely in real
time. Researchers with widely different backgrounds - from the humanities and
social sciences to the physical, biological and engineering sciences – can
collaborate on the same set of data from different perspectives. Indeed, we begin
to see what some1 have called a “fourth paradigm” of science – beyond
observation, theory and simulation, and into a new realm of exploration driven
by mining new insights from vast, diverse data sets. For the first time, large-scale
and complex “whole body” solutions become possible for some of society’s
Grand Challenges of energy and water supply, global warming, and healthcare.
Just how will we train people to work in this environment? What tools will we
need to move, store, preserve and mine these data? How to share them? How to
understand them, if you are in a different scientific discipline than that in which
they were created? As a researcher, how will you know the data you access on
another continent are accurate, uncorrupted and unbiased? What if those data
include personal details – individual health records, financial information or
Internet habits? These are just a few of the profound policy questions posed by
this new age of data-intensive science.
Nowhere in the world are these questions adequately addressed. But we believe
Europe has a special responsibility to lead, rather than to react, in this domain.
The European Research Area – despite its oft-noted difficulties – remains today
one of the top three scientific powers of the world, and if measured by the
number of published scientific papers alone, it out-produces the US and Japan; it
thus contributes more than its fair share to the scientific data tide. But that also
means it has unique skills to address the challenges, through the strength of its
best research institutions, the diversity of its technical talent, and the unique
ability of its researchers to collaborate across borders, industries and disciplines.
Throughout human history, the interrelation between science and the
technology for recording it has been deep and productive. In the ninth century,
the spread of paper underpinned the Golden Age of Islamic science, as Greek
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and Roman works of science were translated and then superseded. From the
15th century onward, the printing press permitted scholarship to travel far and
wide – so a Copernicus could more easily influence a Galileo. In just the past 60
years we have seen information and communications technologies applied to
such diverse fields as reaching the moon, harnessing nuclear energy and
beginning to control cancer. 
In this report we are not trying to second-guess the future; it will certainly be
different from anything we can imagine now. But what we can do is to push for
the difficult policy questions to be addressed, so that important options are not
closed off and the science done today will be available to researchers tomorrow.
We point to a pathway that is ‘technology-neutral’ – based on concepts broad
enough to embrace whatever new forms of information and communications
technologies we develop over the next generation. This requires developing
principles for interoperability (technical, semantic, legal, and ethical), verification
and reliability – at local, regional and global scale. It requires new incentives for
sharing and protecting data of different types, whether that data is precious and
guarded or abundant and open. And it requires a framework to review all these
principles at regular intervals. 
The European Union has an important, coordinating role in achieving this vision
– through its Digital Agenda, its Framework Programme and the policies
embodied in its European Research Area initiatives. Equally, there is the
opportunity for the EU institutions to lead in creating a common, world-wide
vision. The EU Competitiveness Council of late 20092 called on the European
Commission to address the issue of e-infrastructure for science, and this High
Level Group is part of that effort. As we publish this report, the product of six
months of collective thought and research, we now call on the EU institutions to
move beyond study and into action.  
We are on the verge of a great new leap in scientific capability, fuelled by data.
We have a vision of how Europe could benefit rather than suffer, lead rather than
follow. But we urge speed. We must learn to ride the data wave.  
Keep constantly in
mind in how many
things you yourself
have witnessed
changes already. 
The universe is
change, life is
understanding.
Marcus Aurelius, 
121-180
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“We humans have built a creativity machine. It’s the sum of three
things: a few hundred million computers, a communication system
connecting those computers, and some millions of human beings
using those computers and communications” 
Vernor Vinge3 
We live in the Information Age; and nowhere is that name more apt thanin science and technology. Technical information in all forms, whetherstatistics, images, formulae or know-how in the broadest sense of the
term, has already transformed our view of the world – and much more is yet to
come. A few examples, to sketch out the possibilities ahead: 
 Currently, about 2.5 petabytes – more than a million, billion data units – are
stored away each year for mammogrammes in the US alone.4 World-wide,
some estimate, medical images of all kinds will soon amount to 30% of all
data storage.5 These could be a goldmine of data for epidemiological and
drug research, if made accessible in appropriately anonymised form to
researchers. 
 ‘Smart meters’ for electricity consumption, now being installed in many EU
countries, produce the equivalent of one CD-ROM of data for each household
every year. Scale that up to 100 million households, and you have a vast
repository of data for economic and behavioural analysis of people’s energy
consumption.6
 Astronomy is a well-recognised ‘power user’ of data – but we are barely at the
start of this trend. From 2020, the Square Kilometre Array, a new international
radio telescope on the drawing board, could generate 1 petabyte of data
every 20 seconds – a fire-hose of numbers requiring unimaginable
processing power.7 Yet that data will push the limits of the observable
universe out by billions of galaxies, perhaps back to the first moments after
the Big Bang.
II. Welcome to the data world
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 This century opened with the first “reading” of the human genome. By August
2009, digital records on more than 250 billion DNA bases, from various
species, were stored in the US government’s public GenBank database8 and an
entirely new discipline of science had emerged: systems biology. This uses
computers to simulate, at the sub-molecular level, exactly how DNA, proteins
and the other chemical components of life interact – and in time, it will
transform the practice of health sciences.  “Organisms function in an
integrated manner...but biologists have historically studied (them) part by
part,” said Nobel Laureate David Baltimore. Systems biology “ is a critical
science of the future that seeks to understand the integration of the pieces to
form biological systems”.9
As these examples suggest, the increase in scientific data isn’t simply a question
of more information, more storage disks and more optical pipes to move it all –
though that is certainly part of it. It is more profound than that: it changes the
way we do our science, and opens entirely new fields of research. 
And these new fields require, from the start, an international effort. One current
project, 1000 Genomes10, is comparing the complete DNA sequences of more
than 1,000 individuals from around the world to define what makes us different
from one another – an inquiry with at least as many humanistic as scientific
overtones. Geographical information systems, popularised in Google Maps, are
changing the way we study economic, agricultural and demographic trends
world-wide. And the global Internet offers an extraordinary new tool for
behavioural research. Epidemiologists have studied the frequency with which
people search online for keywords such as ‘flu’, as a way to monitor disease
spread. Other researchers, trying to understand how people would react to
pandemic alerts, have looked at the way online gamers in ‘World of Warcraft’
congregate around the digital equivalent of disaster zones, as a clue to new
disease-control strategies.11
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But it is not just what is studied, but also who studies it and how, that is affected
by the data tide. For the first time in two centuries of growing
professionalisation in science, new ICT tools allow the increasing involvement of
amateurs; there are simply too many observations required for the professionals
to do it all on their own. An example is GalaxyZoo, a Web portal through which
amateurs help astronomers explore the Universe.12 Biodiversity monitoring
depends to a large extent on the power of observations by tens of thousands of
volunteers who send their notes on species in defined areas to a central data
repository.13 For instance, the Swedish Species Gateway provides a navigable
visual interface linked to geographical information systems.14 These examples
represent an important social and political trend. Empowering informed ‘citizen-
scientists’ will also empower science. 
Where will this lead? Consider five diverse scenarios that we believe to be
entirely possible in coming decades.
Right: in Grenoble, the
European Synchrotron
Radiation Facility is a super-
microscope studying
anything from the
propagation of cracks in
steel to the surface proteins
on the influenza virus. in the
decade to 2007, its annual
data output rose more than
a hundred-fold. And it is just
one of about 50
synchrotrons world-wide.
Left: After a long, slow rise
since 1986, the volume of
earth-observation data
from the European Space
Agency’s satellites passed
three petabytes in 2007 –
three million, billion bytes.
the projection for 2020: A
seven-fold rise.
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Scenario I: Science and data management
Marie is working in a genomics project linking
twelve large labs over four continents. The task of
data management is intense. A group from China is
preparing to feed its data into the consortium’s
processing pipeline. At the same time, the project’s
accounting system shows two research efforts
elsewhere are behind schedule due to a microscope
producing sub-standard data; the data flow from
that machine is automatically blocked from the
system. Some of Marie’s graduate students,
meanwhile, are trying to verify recently published
results from a competing group of researchers  - but
their own lab equipment is different, so the work-
plan needs to be modified. Next issue: A meeting
with lawyers over a dispute between two of the
research consortium’s members. There is an
argument over who controls what data before and
after processing of the group’s research results. Until
it is settled, the data bank is holding all the files in
escrow. 
Scenario II: Science and the citizen
Carlos likes bugs. He watches them the way a bird-
lover tracks Canada geese – and he feeds his
observations into a system for professionals to
analyse. Out walking in a field one day, he spots
something interesting – an insect species in an
unexpected place. He queries the remote database
for any relevant information that could explain it,
and then checks in with his fellow amateurs. Their
hypothesis: The insect may have changed its food
preference to a different plant species. But why?
Carlos posts his observation; and in the coming
days other enthusiasts are watching for a similar
anomaly. The system automatically analyses their
observations, asks them more questions, and
checks for incorrect information. It also looks for
correlations with other databases – weather
patterns, soil conditions, maps of flora distribution. 
This wealth of observation allows a professional
entomologist to test his hypothesis on ‘preferred
attractors in chaotic ecological processes.’ Carlos is
acknowledged in the resulting open-access
publication. 
SCENARIOS OF THE FUTURE
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Scenario III: Science and the data set
Anneli has a grant under which she is allowed free
access to 10 years of measurements by the global
cell-phone sensor network, stored in cross-
continental archives. This network uses the
miniature sensors standard in cell phones to
monitor local temperature, air quality, wind speed,
light intensity, noise levels and other parameters –
and links it to GPS information. The information is all
kept in regional archives, with open interfaces so
researchers can query them uniformly. With her
team, Anneli wants to investigate correlations
between the environment and the spread of illness
– and for the disease information, she is looking at
anonymised, geo-tagged messages sent by people
mentioning the disease. She intends to clean the
resulting data set and make it publicly available via
her university’s institutional repository. From there, it
could become the scientific equivalent of a Top-40
song – played by others around the world. Her
chances for tenure rise.
Scenario IV: Science and the student
Roger is working on an international PhD. It’s a
relatively new programme, in which a student
applies to become a member of an international
team working on a big problem that affects all
people. His group is comparing many forms of non-
verbal communications between cultures. It has
several hundred members and his university tutor
is one of the nodal points contributing expertise in
‘synergistic communication between biological
components.’ Others in the network are using
archaeological evidence to study communications
between ancient Mesopotamian and Hellenic
cultures; some are studying computer-computer
interactions between different systems; yet more
are studying communications in refugee camps.
Each node contributes to the whole. Results are
communicated as they happen, and there are daily,
virtual-presence planning sessions. Roger had to
sign a contract not to misuse data or contribute
anything that is not for the common good – such as
externally sourced information that he has not
thoroughly checked for provenance. 
SCENARIOS OF THE FUTURE
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Are these five scenarios fantastical? Not at all. There are already hundreds of
projects, in the EU and elsewhere, that are precursors to the features described in
these scenarios.
For example:
 The European Space Agency, recognising the importance of its satellite data
for climate-change research, has launched a Long-Term Data Preservation
programme that merges all earth observation data from across Europe15. At
the same time, the EU’s GENESI-DR project is creating a grid-based computing
system for accessing and processing the huge amount of earth observation
data which will become available. Both use fundamental results from the
CASPAR EU project on how to preserve digitally encoded information.
 Humanities researchers are creating CLARIN, a system to establish an
integrated and interoperable research infrastructure of language resources
and tools. In doing so, they are already tackling proper data management as a
key dimension of the system for the scholarly community. 
 Astronomers around the world are creating the International Virtual
Observatory to allow researchers everywhere to access and use data from
hundreds of astronomical data sources. Also to be included are results of
computer modelling and simulation – for it is not just raw observations that
are the business of modern astronomy, but also the models built from them.
 As part of Framework Programme 7, the European Commission and EU
member-states are investing in a broad range of e-infrastructure projects. The
GEANT research-data network, for instance, connects over 40 million users,
8,000 institutions and 40 countries.16 Other projects provide access to
cooperative grid-computing platforms, develop supercomputing capacity,
and lay the groundwork for the access and preservation of scientific
information. 
So, if this be dreaming, it is done with eyes wide open. But there remain many
challenges to address, as well.
Scenario V: Science and data-sharing
incentives
Hans, rooting in the basement one day, finds an
old laptop with a video of Grandpa on a boat. He
is a young man in the video, wearing a diving
costume. In the background is a marvellous
beach. The video goes on to show underwater
scenes with bizarre fish and colourful coral. The
video is entertaining – but where was it made?
Hans can get the answer in a few minutes. He
goes online to a centralised mapping service, to
which he uploads parts of the video. The service
has smart pattern-matching algorithms, using
huge reference collections. Soon, different
mapping probabilities for the video fragments
are returned, pointing out the most probable
area where the video could have been made: The
Maldives, before global warming drowned them.
This is a bit of personal trivia for Hans, but a new
data set for science. So there is a price for the
service: Hans must let his video fragments stay in
the central database, enriching it further and
making it even more useful – for professional
scientists, too. 
The future of e-infrastructure for scientific data is
bright - and already, extensive work is underway
to make it a reality.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data16
Certainly, creating a scientific world based on e-infrastructures will not beeasy.  For starters, it is technically difficult. The scale and complexity ofthis global scientific asset – with all its sensors, instruments, workstations
and networks – are truly massive. There are many planning pitfalls, common to
all large infrastructure projects. There can be ‘choke points’: technical or
industrial problems that, if unrecognised, stop the show. People can get locked
into sub-optimal technologies; think of the QWERTY/AZERTY computer
keyboard, with its inefficient but now immutable layout. Gateways, originally
created to join disparate systems, can later become barriers to progress in
themselves. Short-term funding decisions can undermine the system’s longer-
term development. What works best for a local user could hamper global
functions. 
The list of pitfalls is long. Success requires careful, coordinated and agile
planning, on a global as well as EU level. E-infrastructure for science is one area
where fragmentation of effort is more than inconvenient or inefficient; it is
inimical. But the technical issues are only the beginning of the challenges to be
overcome. Consider:
 How will we preserve the data? As we all have seen, the media in which we
store information change constantly – from magnetic coils, to tape, to disk,
to USB key, to ‘cloud’ storage, and so on in an endless chain of invention and
obsolescence. What will be the point of storing all this scientific data if, a
century from now, it has degraded, been corrupted, or is simply too difficult
for anyone but a well-equipped expert to use? 
 How will we protect the integrity of the data? Even today, it is easy for a
determined individual to alter or corrupt digital data (think of the constant
controversy over Wikipedia entries.)  As the data tide rises higher, how will we
detect unauthorised alterations? Should every researcher, and indeed every
citizen, have access to the data repositories? Should there be different levels
of access allowed? 
 How will we convey the context and provenance of the data? Given the
emerging trend to make all publicly funded research data publicly available,
just how will users from a wide range of backgrounds understand and query
III. Facing up to the challenges 
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 17
the data they are accessing, and recognise the special circumstances under
which it was collected? Already, in medical research, potentially fatal errors
can arise by researchers inadvertently misinterpreting the drug-trial data
collected by others; so-called ‘meta-analysis,’ to manage such complexities, is
far from a certain science. 
 How will we pay for all this? What new funding and business models will we
need, so that everyone – researchers, enterprises, citizens – have adequate
incentive to contribute to the data infrastructure? What kinds of data, under
what circumstances, should be free?
  How will we protect the privacy of individuals linked to the data? We have
already seen how easy it is for supposedly safeguarded data – whether tax
files or health records – to be lost or misused. On one hand, access to this data
is vital to researchers studying the economy or public health.  On the other
hand, carelessness in handling the data compromises our safety and security.
How will we resolve this paradox? 
Many of these issues involve trust. Data-intensive science operates at a distance
and in a distributed way, often among people who have never met, never
spoken, and, sometimes, never communicated directly in any form whatsoever.
They must share results, opinions and data as if they were in the same room. But
in truth, they have no real way of knowing for sure if, on the other end of the line,
they will find man or machine,  collaborator or competitor, reliable partner or
con-artist, careful archivist or data slob. And those problems concern merely the
scientific community; what about when we add a wider population? Many fields
require the public to cooperate in supplying data (wittingly or not). How will we
judge the reliability and authenticity of data that moves from a personal archive
into a common scientific repository? If science is to advance, all these questions
of trust must be answered by the infrastructure, itself. 
In dealing with many of these issues, we believe a few broad principles arise:
Data as infrastructure
Our stock of intangible knowledge, expanding at today’s hyper-speeds, needs to
be thought of as a new kind of asset in itself, that serves all. As such, it requires
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data18
professional analysis and engineering.  Its contents are heterogeneous –
different data formats, value and uses. There is tremendous value in having the
data  made seamlessly available, to use, reuse and recombine to support the
creation of new knowledge. And the data must be available to whomever,
whenever and wherever needed, yet still be protected if necessary by a range of
constraints including by-attribution licenses, commercial license, time
embargos, or institutional affiliation.
A data pyramid (below) suggests the complex data ecology. At the bottom of
the pyramid lie the most abundant, transient forms of data – billions of personal
data files across the planet, on private disks and storage services, of obvious
value only to the few who create or use them. At the top of the pyramid is
patrimonial data – high-value, irreplaceable data of importance to an entire
nation or society, redundantly stored in national or international trusted
archives. In the middle is cyclic data – a mid-range of data created and used in a
specific task, community or region. The new data infrastructure must cope with
all these data classes.
Source: Adapted from Francine Berman, UC San Diego, in Communications of the ACM. 
Respositories/
Facilities
National- and
international-scale
respositories,
libraries, archives
“Regional” - scale 
libraries and 
targeted data
archives and
centers 
Private 
respositories
Digital Data
Collections
Reference,
nationally and
internationally
important,
irreplaceable
data collections
Key research and
community data
collections 
Personal data
collections
Societal
Value
Patrimonial Data
Community
Value
Cyclic Data
Individual
Value
Transient Data
The data pyramid - a hierarchy of rising value and permanence
T          
Increasing
constituency
Increasing
value
Increasing
trust
decreasing
risk of loss
or damage
Increasing
responsibility
Increasing
stability
Increasing
infrastructure
D  
   
  
  
   
  
   
 
 
 
 
  
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 19
interoperability
Diversity is a dominant feature of scientific information – diversity of data
formats and types, but also of the people and communities that generate and
use the data.  Even within the same scientific community, there are different
points of view, different ways of analysing, sharing and handling data. There is
also diversity in how the data are stored, categorised and mapped. There is
diversity in who can access what kinds of data, and how – from tightly protected
military satellite images to freely accessible Google Earth views. And as science
advances, diversity is bound to increase.
Achieving an interoperable data infrastructure in the midst of such
heterogeneity is a significant challenge. None of the potential benefits of the
scientific data wave will be harnessed unless – given the proper access rights – it
is easy and cheap to rummage through relevant data files anywhere in the world,
in any field. An epidemiologist in Geneva studying the latest flu virus will benefit
greatly from being able to tap easily into DNA databases in London of 1918
Spanish Flu victims – and the epidemiologist’s work should be accessible to a
public health official in Hong Kong, a systems biologist in San Diego and a
medical historian in Boston. That’s all possible today, but with great effort, skill,
cost and time. A leap forward in interoperability will change that.
incentives 
How can we get researchers – or individuals – to contribute to the global data
set?  Only if the data infrastructure becomes representative of the work of all
researchers will it be useful; and for that, a great many scientists and citizens will
have to decide it is worth their while to share their data, within the constraints
they set. To start with, this will require that they trust the system to preserve,
protect and manage access to their data; an incentive can be the hope of gain
from others’ data, without fear of losing their own data. But for more valuable
information, more direct incentives will be needed – from career advancement,
to reputation to cash. Devising the right incentives will force changes in how our
universities are governed and companies organised. This is social engineering,
not to be undertaken haphazardly.
Financial models
All of this costs money – so who pays, and how? To a considerable extent,
scientific e-infrastructure represents a public good. It is vital that governments
and taxpayers step in to provide the critical funding in those instances. Our data
future will look bleak if the public sector under-invests. Of course, there is private
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data20
 Open deposit, allowing user-community centres to store data easily
 Bit-stream preservation, ensuring that data authenticity will be guaranteed
for a specified number of years
 Format and content migration, executing CPU-intensive transformations on
large data sets at the command of the communities
 Persistent identification, allowing data centres to register a huge amount of
markers to track the origins and characteristics of the information
 Metadata support to allow effective management, use and understanding
 Maintaining proper access rights as the basis of all trust
 A variety of access and curation services that will vary between scientific
disciplines and over time
 Execution services that allow a large group of researchers to operate on the
stored date
 High reliability, so researchers can count on its availability
 Regular quality assessment to ensure adherence to all agreements
 Distributed and collaborative authentication, authorisation and accounting
 A high degree of interoperability at format and semantic level
Adapted from the PARADE White Paper at http://www.csc.fi/english/pages/parade/
Scientific e-infrastructure – a wish list
the ideal data
infrastructure for
science will have a
long list of
technical
characteristics.
Here are some
suggestions.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 21
gain as well. When a government laboratory contributes its raw research data to
the global e-infrastructure, it is certainly saving private users the expense of
running those experiments on their own. Equally, when a private company
contributes its own files to the system, it also helps the public researchers. It is
important to devise funding mechanisms that enable all to contribute as well as
to benefit, through an increased return on investment.
These issues can be resolved. We have experience of past changes in how we
store, share and manage valuable assets. As the technology of food and
transport evolved, society moved from self-supporting farmers to town markets,
and from markets to a range of supermarkets and specialty shops. In finance, we
moved from private hoards to communal banks to international markets. The
same path from individual control to international exchange must be trodden
by data – indeed, it is already happening.
It is important to devise funding mechanisms that
enable all to contribute as well as to benefit,
through an increased return on investment.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data22
Collection How can we make sure that data are collected together with the information necessary to re-
use them?
Trust How can we make informed judgements about whether certain data are authentic and can be
trusted?
How can we judge which repositories we can trust? How can appropriate access and use of
resources be granted or controlled? 
Usability How can we move to a situation where non-specialists can overcome the high barriers to their
being able to start sensible work on unfamiliar data, perhaps using intelligent automated tools
for an initial investigation? 
Interoperability How can we implement interoperability within disciplines and move to an overarching multi-
disciplinary way of understanding and using data? 
How can we find unfamiliar but relevant data resources beyond simple keyword searches, but
involving a deeper probing into the data? 
How can automated tools find the information needed to tackle unfamiliar data? 
Diversity How do we overcome the problems of diversity – heterogeneity of data, but also of
backgrounds and data-sharing cultures in the scientific community?
How do we deal with the diversity of data repositories and access rules – within or between
disciplines, and within or across national borders?
Security How can we guarantee data integrity? 
How can we avoid data poisoning by individuals or groups intending to bias them in
their interest? 
How can we react in the case of security breaches to limit their impact?
Scientific e-infrastructure – some challenges to overcome
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 23
Education and training How can the citizen make these benefits available for sensible investigations, and how can they
be safeguarded from fakes? 
How can scientific e-infrastructure foster and increase popular interest and trust in science?
How can we foster the training of more data scientists and data librarians, as important
professions in their own right?
Data publication and access How can data producers be rewarded for publishing data? 
How can we know who has deposited what data and who is re-using them – or  who has the
right to access data which are restricted in some way?
How do we deal with the various ‘filters’ that different disciplines use when choosing and
describing data? What about differences in these attitudes within disciplines, or from one time
to another?
Commercial exploitation How can the infrastructure benefit from commercial developments in data management? 
How can the revenue-generating expertise of the commercial world be brought into play for
the long-term sustainability of these resources? 
New social paradigms How can we learn from the wisdom of crowds about what and whom to trust, while avoiding
being misled by concerted campaigns of deceit? 
Preservation and Sustainability How can we be sure that the important information we collect will be usable and
understandable in the future; in particular how can we fund our information resources in the
long term? 
How can we share the costs and efforts required for sustainability? 
How can we decide what to preserve? 
Scientific e-infrastructure – some challenges to overcome continued
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data24
The creation of scientific e-infrastructure is a means, not an end. It is ameans to new science, new solutions and new progress in society.  Wecannot predict what the world will be like in 2030, but we can state some
broad principles of what it should be like if scientific e-infrastructure is by then
the major contributor to society, the economy and science that we expect it to
be. All of these principles – our vision - point in the direction of an infrastructure
that supports seamless access, use, reuse, and trust of data. It suggests a future in
which the data infrastructure becomes invisible, and the data themselves have
become infrastructure – a valuable asset, on which science, technology, the
economy and society can advance. We will know we are well on our way to
realising this vision when we see the following milestones achieved:
1. All stakeholders, from scientists to national authorities to the
general public, are aware of the critical importance of conserving
and sharing reliable data produced during the scientific process.
This may sound obvious – but it is by no means so.17 Today we see the relative
priorities of society in constant flux on the Internet and other electronic media. In
a world of limited resources, how urgent is a packet of scientific data compared to
home videos? How much is it worth to create reliable back-up and storage
systems for what may seem today like transient chat messages, but could
tomorrow become vital behavioural or epidemiological data? Thus, the first task is
simply to get the message out that scientific e-infrastructure is important to
society.
Expected impact: The intellectual capital of Europe is used to generate
economic and scientific advances now, and that capital is safely preserved for
further exploitation by future generations.
Risk of Inaction: Resources for funding take a back seat to more pressing
concerns, and data decays through neglect. When critical data – whether about
climate, new medicines or historic monuments – are needed later on, it will be
too late. 
IV. A vision for 2030 
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 25
2. Researchers and practitioners from any discipline are able to find,
access and process the data they need. They can be confident in
their ability to use and understand data, and they can evaluate
the degree to which that data can be trusted.
Expected impact: Researchers can today access online sources, but it is a small
fraction of all data produced. In future, the breadth and depth of data available
to them will grow dramatically, whether their discipline is demographics, ocean
chemistry, high-energy physics or astronomy. Scientists’ efficiency and
productivity will rise because they know they can access, use, reuse and trust the
data they find. Inspiration or serendipity can lead to unexpected results. Cross-
fertilisation of ideas and disciplines will produce novel solutions, and promote
greater understanding of complex problems. 
Risk of Inaction: As the volume and diversity of scientific data increase, and as
research becomes more multi-disciplinary, researchers struggle to understand
and correlate data – especially if from another field. They may not find the data at
all. Or if they find it, they are not sure it is what it claims to be. As a result,
researchers become increasingly isolated, narrow specialists; wide-ranging,
serendipitous results become more difficult.  
3. Producers of data benefit from opening it to broad access, and
prefer to deposit their data with confidence in reliable
repositories. A framework of repositories is guided by
international standards, to ensure they are trustworthy.
Expected impact: Researchers are rewarded, by enhanced professional
reputation at the very least, for making their data available to others. Confidence
that their data cannot be corrupted or lost reassures them to share even more.
Data sharing, with appropriate access control, is the rule, not the exception. Data
are peer-reviewed by the community of researchers re-using and re-validating
them. The outcome: A data-rich society with information that can be used for
new and unexpected purposes.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data26
Risk of Inaction: Information stays hidden. The researcher who created it in the
hope it can yield more publications or patents in the future holds on to it. Other
researchers who need that information are unable to get at it, or waste time re-
creating it. The outcome: A world of fragmented data sources – in fact, a world
much like today.  
4. Public funding rises, because funding bodies have confidence that
their investments in research are paying back extra dividends to
society, through increased use and re-use of publicly generated
data. 
Expected impact: Research productivity rises, through easy access and re-use of
data. Funders take a strategic view of the value of data – and plan investments
logically and consistently.  R&D activity grows globally. New and unexpected
solutions emerge to our major societal challenges. 
Risk of Inaction: The public sector unnecessarily spends money on producing
data over and over again, because they are lost or cannot be found.  Data that are
of the greatest value to the public (of a “public goods” nature) are a special loss.
Researchers overlook important insights, because they cannot access or
understand potentially vital data from others around the world. Opportunities for
progress and prosperity are missed. Investment slows. 
5. The innovative power of industry and enterprise is harnessed by
clear and efficient arrangements for exchange of data between
private and public sectors, allowing appropriate returns to both.  
Expected impact: Data generated for one purpose are re-used for others, and the
pace of innovation – social and technological – rises. Commercial research capability
is strengthened by public research, and broad expertise is harnessed to the benefit
of all. Mobility and cross-fertilisation between the commercial and academic sectors
increase, amplifying the impact of innovation and new discoveries.  New companies,
jobs and fortunes result. European industry is more competitive. 
Risk of Inaction: Suspicion and adversarial attitudes develop between private
and public sectors. A vicious circle sets in of ivory-tower academics and under-
investing industrialists.  Europe’s competitiveness suffers.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 27
6. The public has access to and can make creative use of the huge
amount of data available; it can also contribute to the data store
and enrich it. Citizens can be adequately educated and prepared
to benefit from this abundance of information. 
Expected impact: Citizens can share and contribute to the scientific process. They
understand the benefits and risks of new technologies better, and more rational
political decisions emerge. The young are inspired by an ambition for new
discoveries, and join the ranks of scientists and engineers in far-greater numbers.
Risk of Inaction: Citizens feel increasingly distrustful of and isolated from
science, and resistant to technology. They are easily misled by pseudo-science
and political demagogy. The supply of engineers and scientists is inadequate to
society’s needs. 
7. Policy makers are able to make decisions based on solid
evidence, and can monitor the impacts of these decisions.
Government becomes more trustworthy.
Expected impact: Policy decisions improve, and public confidence in the entire
political process rises. It is possible to correct policy mistakes, whether economic
or social, in real time. People gain confidence in government, and political
participation rises.
Risk of Inaction: Ill-informed political decisions lead to bad results, and our
economic, environmental and social problems mount.  Citizens lose confidence
in their leaders.  An impenetrable wall of data separates the governors from the
governed. 
8. Global governance promotes international trust and
interoperability. 
Expected impact: Citizens have access to the world’s store of information
without unnecessary boundaries. A framework for global interoperability
maintains a common, public space for scientific data. This instils trust and
ensures that the best minds can make use of information no matter where they
are. World trade grows, and societies prosper.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data28
Risk of Inaction: The divide between the information-rich and the information-
poor grows. Some of the best minds are isolated, and new ideas go
un-exploited. The world is a poorer place.  
Who benefits from scientific e-infrastructure 
Beneficiaries Benefits
Citizens Appreciate the results and benefits arising from research
and feel more confident in how their tax money is spent
Find their own answers to important questions, based on
real evidence 
Pass on knowledge and experience to others, and make a
contribution to the knowledge society beyond their
immediate circle and life-spans
Funders and Make evidence-based decisions
Policy Makers
Eliminate unnecessary duplication of work
Get greater return on investment 
Researchers Have all data and tools easily available, increasing
productivity
Cross disciplinary boundaries, gaining new insights and
producing new solutions
‘Stand on the shoulders of giants’
Enterprise and Use the best available 
Industry information for R&D, increasing productivity
Create new knowledge, markets and job opportunities
Provide a strong industrial and economic base for
European prosperity 
Increase opportunities for mobility and knowledge
exchange 
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 29
V. A call to action
The scientific and social benefits of our vision are numerous. But there aremany other practical reasons to act.  ICT is one of the main engines ofeconomic growth. It is to our age what paved highways, national railroads
and inter-continental telegraphs were to earlier generations. Yet in Europe, the
industry underpinning this vital economic activity has had many difficulties.
And, as the European Competiveness Council has noted, “the ICT impact on
productivity growth is lower in the EU than in major trading partners.”18 A
concerted European effort to build e-infrastructures for science will stimulate
market demand for ICT. It will pull the best from ICT researchers, engineers and
industrialists, spurring growth and jobs. And it will pave the digital highways
that European science will need.
There is a clear role for government in all this. We urge our leaders to take into
consideration the following:
 A good framework for the governance of data will be a source of strength in
the most knowledge-intensive industries, fostering the growth of companies,
goods, and services with the highest value-added. Those regions of the
world that lead this policy debate, and develop the technologies and
industry to support it, will gain competitive advantage.
 Scientific e-infrastructure is essential if we are to address the Grand
Challenges of today. Understanding climate change, finding alternative
energy sources, and preserving the health of an ageing population are all
fiendishly complex, cross-disciplinary problems that require high-
performance data storage, smart analytics, transmission and mining to solve. 
 Social cohesion will depend in part on how fairly and openly knowledge and
information flow within our region and between the public and private
sector. If information is power in the knowledge economy, governments
must ensure that the benefits are appropriately distributed. Governments
must work effectively through public-private partnerships to develop 
e-infrastructure.  
 International collaboration is essential; there is no such thing as a purely local
or national network anymore. We must collaborate in global architectures
and governance for e-infrastructure, and we must share costs and
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data30
technologies for archiving, networking and managing data across the globe. 
With this preamble, we offer a short-list of action by various EU institutions. Of
course, we recognise there has already been much work done in the field. The
Commission has funded several projects to develop distributed computing
environments, databases for discipline-specific content, and libraries for new
types of online communications. There has been much debate – from the
Commission, the Council and the Parliament – about the need to speed
development of scientific e-infrastructure. And we note that many other public
bodies have begun considering these matters: For instance, the group reporting
to the US Office of Science and Technology Policy recently published its own
agenda and recommendations for ensuring long-term access to digital
information.19 But more, urgent, concrete action is needed from all parties, we
believe. First steps include:
1. Develop an international framework for a Collaborative Data
Infrastructure 
The emerging infrastructure for scientific data must be flexible but reliable,
secure yet open, local and global, affordable yet high-performance. Obviously,
this is a tall order – and there is no one technology that we know today or can
imagine tomorrow to achieve it all. Thus, what is needed is a broad, conceptual
framework for how different companies, institutes, universities, governments
and individuals would interact with the system – what types of data, privileges,
authentication or performance metrics should be planned.  This framework
would ensure the trustworthiness of data, provide for its curation, and permit an
easy interchange among the generators and users of data. For the sake of
illustration, we outline below the broadest building blocks of such a framework.
The Commission has funded several projects to
develop distributed computing environments,
databases for discipline-specific content, and
libraries for new types of online communications.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 31
This Collaborative Data Infrastructure is a map to be filled in by thousands of
different actors across the globe and over many years. But we call upon the
European Commission to accelerate efforts to make this map.  And it should
consider requiring that all relevant EU research projects should, when it comes
to considering their data management, fit into such a framework. 
2. Earmark additional funds for scientific e-infrastructure
This is expensive. And as e-infrastructure for scientific data has a public
dimension, so it should also have appropriate public funding. There are several
possible funding sources – including some ideally suited for major infrastructure
projects of this sort. The EU’s Structural Funds are already used to build new
schools, roads, industrial parks and other key infrastructure, targeted at those
regions of Europe most in need. Already, a portion of these Structural Funds are
earmarked for research and innovation. This need, for data generation and
maintenance, cuts across that part of the budget – and all EU programmes,
innovation-related or not. We call upon the European Council to increase the
amount spent specifically on e-infrastructure for scientific data.
             
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
          
The Collaborative Data Infrastructure - a framework for the future
  
 
Data 
Generators
Community Support Services
Users
Tr
us
t
Da
ta
 C
ur
at
io
n
Common Data Services
User funcionalities, data
capture & transfer, virtual
research environments 
Data discovery & navigation
workow generation,
annotation, interpretability
Persistant storage,
identication, authenticity,
workow execution, mining
onontiotio
us
t
us
t aa
urur
ta
 C
ta
 C
DaDa
rrTT
this figure suggests, in the
broadest possible terms,
how different actors, data
types and services should
interrelate in a global e-
infrastructure for science.
Data generators and users
gather, capture, transfer
and process data - often,
across the globe, in virtual
research environments.
they draw upon support
services in their specific
scientific communities -
tools to help them find
remote data, work with it,
annotate it or interpret it.
the support services,
specific to each scientific
domain and provided by
institutes or companies,
draw on a broad set of
common data services that
cut across the global
system; these include
systems to store and
identify data, authenticate
it, execute tasks, and mine it
for unexpected insights. At
every layer in the system,
there are appropriate
provisions to curate data -
and to ensure its
trustworthiness.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data32
3. Develop and use new ways to measure data value, and reward
those who contribute it
Who contributes the most or best to the data commons? Who uses the most?
What is the most valuable kind of data – and to whom? How efficiently is the
data infrastructure being used and maintained? These are all measurement
questions. At present, we have lots of different ways of answering them – but we
need better, more universal metrics. If we had them, funding agencies would
know what they are getting for their money – who is using it wisely. Researchers
would know the most efficient pathways to get whatever information they are
seeking. Companies would be able to charge more easily for their services. We
urge the European Commission to lead the study of how to create meaningful
metrics, in collaboration with the ‘power users’ in industry and academia, and in
cooperation with international bodies.
4. Train a new generation of data scientists, and broaden public
understanding
Achieving all this requires a change of culture – a new way of thinking about
when you share information, how you describe or annotate it for re-use, when
you hide it or protect it, when you charge for it or give it away. It requires new
knowledge about how researchers use and re-use information, in different
disciplines and countries. We urge that the European Commission promote, and
the member-states adopt, new policies to foster the development of advanced-
degree programmes at our major universities for this emerging field of data
science. We also urge the member-states to include data management and
governance considerations in the curricula of their secondary schools, as part of
the IT familiarisation programmes that are becoming common in European
education.
5. Create incentives for green technologies in the data
infrastructure
Computers burn energy – vast quantities of it. Data centres absorb about 2% of
world electricity production. Computer assembly also consumes precious
minerals, lots of fresh water and adds to CO2 production. Clearly, as hardware
components multiply into the trillions, environmental constraints will tighten. So
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 33
the ICT industry must be incentivised to change its production and distribution
methods, to go greener. But the issue goes beyond hardware. When a researcher
makes a copy of a data set, he or she consumes resources – virtual though the
action may seem. Indeed, basic information theory tells us, whenever we bring
order to information we are adding to its energy. This fact must be understood,
and factored into our broader environmental policies. We urge the European
institutions, as they review plans for CO2 management and energy efficiency, to
consider the impact of e-infrastructure and prepare policies now that will ensure
we have the necessary resources to perform science.
6. Establish a high-level, inter-ministerial group on a global level to
plan for data infrastructure
As stated previously, it makes no sense for one country or region to act alone.
Interoperability requires that there be reciprocal agreements between
governments – the digital equivalent of trade treaties. There must also be
agreement that all countries contribute, according to their usage and needs, to
the global effort; free riders can endanger the system. We urge the European
Commission to identify a group of international representatives who could meet
regularly to discuss the global governance of scientific e-infrastructure. It should
also host the first such meeting.
There are many other actions we believe essential to the development of 
e-infrastructure for science; we detail more in the Annex, and provide a list of
potential ‘show-stoppers’ that will need attention. We believe that we all 
benefit from a far-seeing, collaborative and open approach to science and the 
e-infrastructure to support it. We urge action now. 
We believe that we all benefit from a far-seeing,
collaborative and open approach to science and the
e-infrastructure to support it. We urge action now. 
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data34
ANNEX
The 2030 Vision – and the recommendations
All stakeholders, from scientists to national
authorities to the general public, are aware of
the critical importance of conserving and
sharing reliable data produced during the
scientific process.
All member states ought to publish their policies
and implementation plans on the conservation and
sharing of scientific data, aiming at a coordinated
European approach.
Legal issues are worked out so that they encourage,
and not impede, global data sharing.
The scientific community is supported to provide its
data and metadata for re-use.
Every funded science project includes a fixed
budget percentage for compulsory conservation
and distribution of data, spent depending on the
project context.
Data form an infrastructure, and are an asset for
future science and the economy.
Vision Summary Recommendations Impact if achieved
Researchers and practitioners from any
discipline are able to find, access and process
the data they need. They can be confident in
their ability to use and understand data, and
they can evaluate the degree to which that data
can be trusted.
Create a robust, reliable, flexible, green, evolvable data
framework with appropriate governance and long-term
funding schemes to key services such as Persistent
Identification and registries of metadata.
Propose a directive demanding that data
descriptions and provenance are associated with
public (and other) data.
Create a directive to set up a unified authentication
and authorisation system.
Set Grand Challenges to aggregate domains.
Provide “forums” to define strategies at disciplinary and
cross-disciplinary levels for metadata definition.
Work closely with real users and build according to
their requirements.
Dramatic progress in the efficiency of the scientific
process, and rapid advances in our understanding
of our complex world, enabling the best brains to
thrive wherever they are.
Producers of data benefit from opening it to
broad access, and prefer to deposit their data
with confidence in reliable repositories. A
framework of repositories is guided by
international standards, to ensure they are
trustworthy.
Propose reliable metrics to assess the quality and
impact of datasets. All agencies should recognise
high quality data publication in career
advancement.
Create instruments so long-term (rolling) EU and
national funding is available for the maintenance
and curation of significant datasets.
Help create and support international audit and
certification processes.
Link funding of repositories at EU and national
level to their evaluation.
Create the discipline of data scientist, to ensure
curation and quality in all aspects of the system.
Data-rich society with information that can be
used for new and unexpected purposes.
Trustworthy information is useable now and for
future generations.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data 35
Vision Summary Recommendations Impact if achieved
Public funding rises, because funding bodies
have confidence that their investments in
research are paying back extra dividends to
society, through increased use and re-use of
publicly generated data. 
EU and national agencies mandate that data
management plans be created.
Funders have a strategic view of the value of data
produced. 
The innovative power of industry and
enterprise is harnessed by clear and efficient
arrangements for exchange of data between
private and public sectors, allowing
appropriate returns to both.  
Use the power of EU-wide procurement to
stimulate more commercial offerings and
partnerships.
Create better collaborative models and incentives
for the private sector to invest and work with
science for the benefit of all.
Create improved mobility and exchange
opportunities.
Commercial expertise is harnessed to the public
benefit in a healthy economy. 
The public has access to and can make creative
use of the huge amount of data available to
them; it can also contribute to it and enrich it.
Citizens can be adequately educated and
prepared to benefit from this abundance of
information. 
Create non-specialist as well as specialist data
access, visualisation, mining and research
environments.
Create annotation services to collect views and
derived results.
Create data recommender systems.
Embed data science in all training and academic
qualifications.
Integrate into gaming and social networks.
Citizens get a better awareness of and confidence
in sciences, and can play an active role in evidence-
based decision making and can question
statements made in the media. 
Global governance promotes international
trust and interoperability 
Member states should publish their strategy,
and resources, for implementation, by 2015.
Create a European framework for certification
for those coming up to an appropriate level of
interoperability.
Create a “scientific Davos” meeting to bring
commercial and scientific domains together.
We avoid fragmentation of data and resources.
Policy makers are able to make decisions
based on solid evidence, and can monitor
the impacts of these decisions. Government
becomes more trustworthy.
Propose a directive to ensure that public data is
available (with security where applicable).
Policy decisions are evidence-based to bridge
the gap between society and decision-making,
and increase public confidence in political
decisions.
RiDinG tHE wAvE How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data36
Impediments What we could do to overcome them
What could jeopardise the vision? 
ANNEX
 Lack of long term investment in critical components Identify new funding mechanisms
such as persistent identification Identify new sources of funding
Identify risks and benefits associated with digitally encoded information
Lack of preparation Ensure the required research is done in advance
Lack of willingness to co-operate across disciplines/ funders/ nations Apply subsidiarity principle so we do not step on researchers’ toes
Take advantage of growing need of integration: within and across disciplines
Lack of published data Provide ways for data producers to benefit from publishing their data
Lack of trust Need ways of managing reputations
Need ways of auditing  and certifying repositories 
Need quality, impact, and trust metrics for datasets
Not enough data experts Need to train data scientists and to make researchers aware of the importance of
sharing their data
The infrastructure is not used Work closely with real users and build according to their requirements
Make data use interesting – for example integrating into games
Use “data recommender” systems i.e. “you may also be interested in...”
Too complex to work Do not aim for a single top down system
Ensure effective governance and maintenance system (c.f. IETF)
Lack of coherent data description allowing re-use of data Provide “forums” to define strategies at disciplinary and cross-disciplinary levels
for metadata definition 
Chair: John Wood, Secretary General of
the Association of Commonwealth
Universities
Thomas Andersson, Professor of
Economics and former President,
Jönköping University; Senior Advisor,
Science, Technology and Innovation,
Sultanate of Oman
Achim Bachem, Chairman, Board of
Directors, Forschungszentrum Jülich
GmbH
Christoph Best, European
Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge
(UK)/Google UK Ltd, London (from
September 2010).
Françoise Genova, Director, Strasbourg
astronomical Data Centre; Observatoire
Astronomique de Strasbourg, Université
de Strasbourg/CNRS
Diego R. Lopez, RedIRIS
Wouter Los, Faculty of Science at the
University of Amsterdam; Coordinator of
preparatory project LifeWatch
biodiversity research infrastructure; Vice
Chair Governing Board of GBIF
Monica Marinucci, Director, Oracle
Public Sector, Education and Research
Business Unit
Laurent Romary, INRIA and Humboldt
University
Herbert Van de Sompel, Staff Scientist,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jens Vigen, Head Librarian, European
Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Peter Wittenburg, Technical Director,
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Rapporteur: David Giaretta, STFC and
Alliance for Permanent Access
Report Text: Richard L. Hudson,
Science|Business
REFERENCES
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Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery.”Microsoft Research.  Redmond, Wash:
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http://research.microsoft.com/enus/collaboration/fourthparadigm/
2 Council of the European Union. “The future of ICT research, innovation and
infrastructures - Adoption of Council Conclusions.” 25 November 2009.
3 Vinge, V. “The Creativity Machine”.  Nature, Vol. 440.  March 2006.
4 Hey, A.F.G. and A.E.Trefethen, in Grid Computing: Making the Global
Infrastructure a Reality, F. Berman, G.C. Fox, A.J.G. Hey, Eds. Wiley, Hoboken,
NJ, 2003.
5, 6 Beyea, Jan. “The Smart Electricity Grid and Scientific Research,” Science
328: 979, 21 May 2010.
7 “The Square Kilometre Array: Factsheet for Scientists and Engineers.” SKA
Program Development Office, April 2010.
http://www.skatelescope.org/PDF/100420_SKA_Factsheet-Scientists-
Engineers.pdf
8 National Centre for Biotechnology Information. “What is GenBank?”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ 
9 Institute for Systems Biology. “Systems biology – the 21st century science.”
http://www.systemsbiology.org. 
10 The 1000 Genomes Project. http://www.1000genomes.org/ 
11 Lofgren, Eric T. and Nina H. Fefferman. “The untapped potential of virtual
game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics.” The Lancet Infectious
Diseases, VII:9 (625 – 629), September 2007.
12 http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ 
13 Irwin, A. “Constructing the Scientific Citizen: Science & Democracy in the
Biosciences,” Public Understanding of Science vol.10, pp.1-18 (2001). 
14 http://www.artportalen.se
15 http://earth.esa.int/gscb/ltdp
16 http://www.geant.net
17Survey results from the PARSE.Insight project (http://www.parse-
insight.eu/) show the lack of awareness of preservation and  reluctance to
share data.
18 Council of the European Union. Ibid.
19 Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access.
Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long-Term Access to
Digital Information.” February 2010.
http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf
For the ‘Data Pyramid’ graphic on page 18, the HLG wishes to acknowledge:
Berman, F. 2008. “Got data? A guide to data preservation in the information
age.” Communications of the ACM 51, 12 (Dec. 2008), 50-56.
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1409360.1409376
About the High Level Group
The High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data was charged by the European
Commission’s Directorate-General for Information Society and Media to prepare
a “vision 2030” for the evolution of e-infrastructure to scientific data.
The HLG wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their invaluable
contribution to the discussions: Mirko Albani, Peter Doorn, Fabrizio Gagliardi, 
Daron Green, István Kenesei, Puneet Kishor, Kimmo Koski, Norbert Lossau, Linda Miller,
Bernd Panzer-Steindel, Günter Stock, Ilkka Tuomi.
Design: Design4Science Ltd. Illustrations: Fletcher Ward Design
The High Level Expert
Group on Scientific Data
was charged by the
European Commission’s
Directorate-General for
Information Society and
Media to prepare 
a “vision 2030” for 
the evolution of 
e-infrastructure for 
scientific data. 
After meetings and
consultations from
December 2009 through
June 2010, the group
presents its outlook and
recommendations.