The Infrastructure for Integration in Structural Sciences (I2S2) Project is funded under the Research Data Management Infrastructure strand of the JISC’s Managing Research Data Programme, with a duration of 18 months (Oct 2009 to March 2011).

I2S2 will identify requirements for a data-driven research infrastructure in “Structural Science”, focusing on the domain of Chemistry, but with a view towards inter-disciplinary application. I2S2 will develop use cases that explore perspectives of scale and complexity and research discipline throughout the data lifecycle.

Two research data management pilots based on the use cases, will examine the business processes of research, and highlight the benefits of an integrated approach. Both pilots will address traversing administrative boundaries between institutions to national facilities in addition to issues of scale (local laboratory to national facilities, DIAMOND synchrotron and ISIS respectively). Pilot 2 in particular, will apply the approach to Earth Sciences and demonstrate the benefit to scientific disciplines other than Chemistry.

A key component of the infrastructure will be a harmonised Integrated Information Model to include all stages of the Data Life Cycle.

A “before and after” cost-benefit analysis will be performed using the Keeping Research Data Safe (KRDS2) model, which will be extended to address inter-disciplinary requirements in I2S2.

Project Partners:
UKOLN, University of Bath
Digital Curation Centre
University of Southampton
University of Cambridge
Science & Technology Facilities Council
Charles Beagrie Ltd.