Data management and computing infrastructure procurement broadly serves Finnish research
Together with research and innovation actors, the Ministry of Education and Culture is running the Data and Computing 2021 development programme (DL2021), which focuses on the development of data management and computing research infrastructures, services and expertise. The programme will run from 2017 to 2021. In January 2018, the development programme steering group discussed and approved the infrastructure procurement plan. The Ministry of Education and Culture has entered an agreement with CSC -IT Center for Science Ltd. on the launching of infrastructure procurement.
The data management and computing infrastructure supports research and education at universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutes. It also supports national innovation initiatives by making use of basic research results from higher education institutions and and research institutes in collaboration with working life.
New infrastructure ensures the international competitiveness of the Finnish research community in data and computing-intensive fields of research.
"Procurement will expand CSC's clientele considerably," predicts Vice Managing Director Tiina Kupila-Rantala of CSC. "Compared to now, it will promote, in particular, artificial intelligence research and the use of AI as a research tool, not to mention improve the conditions for data-intensive computing," she adds.
New infrastructure available to clients in the spring of 2019
The infrastructure will be installed in two main phases. In the first phase, the computing capacity being added will be available to clients by the end of March 2019, while the second phase will conclude in March 2020. During the third phase (2019−2021), capacity will supplemented to meet user needs arising later.
"The phasing has been planned by optimising the remaining lifecycle of the existing infrastructure. This also allows for the timely procurement of technologies and helps to minimise any interruptions in services," explains CSC Senior Application Specialist Sebastian von Alfthan.
Expertise development is key
In December 2017, the Ministry of Education and Culture entered an agreement with CSC to enhance expert support and training in data management and computing. The investment will support the development of expertise at both CSC and among its expanding user base.
According to Erja Heikkinen, Counsellor for Science Affairs at the Ministry of Education and Culture, it is vital that CSC be able to effectively meet the demands of its expanding clientele as well as provide training and support services for new fields of research. This will also facilitate the provision of local expert support in research organisations.
Steering continues its work in enhancing expertise and influence
The development programme steering group consists of representatives from ministries, research organisations, research funders and companies. In addition to research infrastructure procurement, the steering group's task is also to initiate and chart research and training that requires data management and makes use of scientific computing in various fields. Another item on the steering group agenda is to ensure that research and training results in the field have a broad impact on society.
More information:
Erja Heikkinen, Counsellor for Science Affairs, Head of Team Science Policy Team (MEC), tel. +358 (0)29 533 0101
Sebastian von Alfthan, Senior Application Specialist (CSC Ltd.), tel. +358 (0)40 588 8688
Scenarios for using the DL2021 development programme in computing and data-intensive research
Large-scale simulations
- Conventional high-performance computing - of particular use to physical science representatives
- Research subjects include climate change, space weather, fusion reactions, astronomy and particle physics phenomena
Medium-scale simulations
- Material sciences research, energy technology challenges, chemistry and other natural science research questions (e.g. simulation of biophysical cell functions)
- Use of spatial datasets
- Measured in computing time, these cover a large percentage of CSC's current client use
Data-intensive computing
- Bioinformatics research, whose researchers currently comprise the largest user group of data-intensive computing at CSC
- Linguistic research and other digital humanities
- Use of data analytics in the analysis and economic study of business data
Data-intensive computing of sensitive data
- Research based on medical patient data, such as cancer and epilepsy studies and the analysis of genetic and imaging data
- Social sciences research, humanities interview data, and audio, visual and video records
- Register data and other data containing personal information
- Requires, for example, environments with a higher data security level and tools for managing data user rights
Artificial intelligence
- The use of machine learning algorithms and wide-ranging data sources in meeting scientific and business challenges, e.g. artificial vision and smart traffic
- Use expanding into new areas, such as biosciences and humanities, e.g. natural language research
Internet of Things (IoT) and data flows
- Use of data sources with a constant flow of data, such as measurement satellites, weather radars, sensor networks, share prices, social media message flows
- Use of data flow sources related to the Internet (Internet of Things), e.g. in robotics and industrial applications