ODE Press releases

Kick start for ODE project – Opportunities for Data Exchange

07.12.2010

There are more scientists alive and working now than in the entire history of the world. More data is being produced by one instrument in a year than has been collected by all the national libraries in Europe ever. Data preservation, re-use and exchange is essential.

Researchers are still skeptical of digital archives and data sharing. The fear of data misuse and a feeling of losing control of data leave many repositories for data sharing largely empty today.
CSC is one of the main actors in the two-year ODE project, financed by the European Commission under Framework Program 7 and co-ordinated by CERN, the European organization for Nuclear Research. ODE investigates issues of data preservation, re-use and exchange both sociologically as well as technically by producing a collection of inspiring success stories as well as collating ‘heroic failures’ to warn of pitfalls.

“We have to take risks! We need to hear about the failures as well as the successes”, said ODE coordinator Dr Salvatore Mele, CERN, in the ODE kick-off meeting held in Helsinki 23-24 November 2010.

The shared stories and best practices will serve to inspire researchers. Funding agencies will benefit from the collection of opportunities, and e-Infrastructure providers will have a great chance to further understand their users. By encouraging data exchange, society will benefit from faster solutions to key research issues.

“Data preservation, re-use and exchange is a better investment of taxpayers’ money, as impact of each data set is multiplied. More eyes looking at data makes the breakthroughs we need more likely”, added Mele.

The pervasive application of new services and technologies data area provides new opportunities for inventions, innovations and entirely new kinds of methods replacing older.

“This change enables a full-scale transfer to open science, in which well-documented research methods, results and source data are available to all. We have to move from closed environments to open collaboration and sharing”, said Pirjo-Leena Forsström, CSC.

CSC has knowledge of e-Infrastructure both nationally and internationally and will contribute to the project by sharing Finnish e-Infrastructure experiences and success stories.

The ODE results will be discussed in two conferences in the second halves of 2011 and 2012.

Background facts on the ODE Project – Opportunities for Data Exchange 

Project period:  2 years starting from November 2010
Members of the project consortium:

  • European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
  • Alliance for Permanent Access (APA)
  • Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC)
  • Helmotz Association of German Research Centres (HA, represented by Alfred Wegener Institute)
  • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
  • British Library (BL)
  • Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB)
  • The Stichting LIBER Foundation (LIBER)
  • The International Association of STM Publishers (STM)

The ODE project receives funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme.

More information: Pirjo-Leena Forsström, Director of Data Services for Science and Culture CSC, e-mail: firstname.lastname(at)csc.fi

Dr Salvatore Mele, Project Coordinator, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), e-mail:  firstname.lastname(at)cern.ch

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. is a non-profit limited company administered by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Having core competences in modeling, computing and information services, CSC provides versatile IT services, support and resources for academia, research institutes, and companies. The Funet communication links provide research workers with Finland’s widest selection of scientific software and databases and Finland’s most powerful supercomputing environment.

(This press release was prepared by CSC for the Finnish media – available from http://www.csc.fi/english/csc/news/news/ODE_kick_start)