EII Research Themes & Programs
EII Research Themes
The international research
community has recently reached consensus in identifying the most important
problems/themes in the IT area for the next decade. They are:
Theme 1:
Ability to interoperate
across existing heterogeneous platforms and applications
Theme 2:
Efficient processing of
very large data sets, often with unstructured data types
Theme 3:
Technology adoption and
impact
Theme 1
in particular, targets complex interoperability problems in a systemic way. We
recognise that international standards must play a substantial role in
unification of system interfaces and terminology adoption. However, in practice
they do not eliminate the interoperability problems, but only limit the number
of options to be considered.
Theme 2
is associated with many specialised scientific applications that are tightly
coupled with Theme 1. New computing paradigms need to be examined where
performance and ability to efficiently deal with very large and complex data
sets is critical; in areas such as e-science, e-astronomy or bioinformatics. New
computing architectures, such as grid and peer-to–peer, will provide access to
unique sets of shared data and processes, with the unprecedented effectiveness
of driving scientific discovery further.
Theme 3
on technology adoption and impact supports research that enhances understanding
of how people create, seek, obtain, manage, evaluate, use, and categorise
information, and the impact of IT on individuals, organisations, institutions,
communities and society; research that advances the organisation, governance,
application, management, and use of information and IT that reduces economic
losses and social costs through inappropriate applications and implementations
of technology.
The driving
objective of this network is to respond to these three research themes and this
has not altered after the first year of operation. Our focus on these three
themes has been reinforced through facilitating specific activities as described
in detail later in this Report.
Operating
within the matrix of the three research themes, various
EII Research programs
have been identified as focal points of investigation for the Network:
·
Computing
Infrastructure,
·
Data and
Knowledge Management,
·
Enterprise
Centric Computing,
·
Security,
Privacy and Trust,
·
Vertical
Applications,
·
Technology
Adoption and Impact, and
·
Service
Centric Computing.
