How to fund eInfrastructure for research in the years to come?
A working group appointed by NTNU, UiB, UiO and UiT has proposed a new model for the future funding of Norwegian e-infrastructure (high-performance computing and data storage facilities as well as advanced user support) for research in order to be able to meet the ever increasing demand for e-infrastructure services. The backdrop is the strongly increasing cost of this infrastructure, which at the same time has become completely indispensable in itself and as a prerequisite for much of the other advanced infrastructure that science relies on. The group has now released a draft report for which they seek input from the community. The report makes several recommendations: Norway should aim to have e-infrastructure services on level with the best of a set of international reference countries; The level of base funding for e-infrastructure services should be increased significantly, by as much as 130-190 MNOK annually; The four universities and the Research Council of Norway should significantly increase their contribution to the base funding of the e-infrastructure services; A wider range of research and higher-education institutions should contribute to the base funding of the e-infrastructure services; A more trans-disciplinary funding must be put in place for e-infrastructure services as they are used by an ever increasing number of research domains. For further information, see the commentary made by the rectors of the four universities (in Norwegian).
