The National e-Science Centre 2006-2008

The term e-Science has pervaded the workings of many research disciplines in the last few years. E-Science can be defined as the invention and application of computing methods to extend our capabilities in any research discipline. E-Science includes pioneering new methods for managing and exploiting the rapidly growing collections of data, scientific databases, the use of advanced computational models, the support of scientific collaboration, and the use of powerful computational infrastructures such as the Grid. The Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow have been prominent in e-Science and were chosen to jointly host the National e-Science Centre , charged with developing, promoting and supporting e-Science nationwide. The NeSc provides national leadership and coordination, a focus for representing the UK e-Science programme internationally, regional outreach, and participation in developing the national infrastructure.The NeSC also augments (and leverages) many already strong assets within the Universities, including an extensive portfolio of e-Science projects, high-performance computing facilities, an ethos of engaging with a wide range of disciplines in Computer Science and a diverse range of curated research data and computationally intensive research applications. This proposal seeks the continuation of the NeSC for a further two year period following the expiry of the current grant in July 2006.