Start date: 1 August 2003
End date: 30 November 2004
Funding programme: Support for e-Research programme
Fast Track will deliver elements of the e-Social Science Awareness and Training Environment in order to provide the social science community with early and real confidence in the Grid and demonstrate the potential the technology offers.
The project will deliver two strands to feed into the e-Social Science Awareness and Training Environment:
- The use of Access Grid as a dissemination tool for part of the ESRC Research Methods programme, an accompanying survey and report to inform the wider social science community about effective use of this technology and the creation of learning and teaching materials for on-line and workshop dissemination.
- The creation of learning and teaching materials about the use of Grid technologies to solve social science research problems based on the ESRC/DTI funded e-Science demonstrator project led by the University of Manchester, Seamless Access to Multiple Datasets (SAMD).
Using Access Grid for two sessions in the ESRC Research Methods programme will demonstrate to a large number of social scientists the potential for collaborative working - as well as time and money savings – provided by Grid technologies thereby establishing an early enthusiasm in the community for e-Science.
The ESRC/DTI funded SAMD e-Science demonstrator project demonstrated how Grid technologies could enable the automation of complex workflows and facilitate the scaling up of social science research. SAMD was based on a particular substantive problem, but its approach and methods can be generalised to virtually any kind of social science research involving data retrieval and analysis. One aim of the project was to reduce the technical barriers that have slowed the diffusion of Grid technologies into social science applications, and this was achieved through the development of features such as the desktop GUI interface and transparent access system. These generic elements can clearly be redeployed in future social science Grid applications.
Fast Track will work closely with the National e-Social Science Centre to target materials at potential early adopters of e-Science. These early adopters include the ESRC funded e-Science Pilot Projects. The project will also target other ESRC/JISC funded data services, such as ESDS and the Census Programme Units, who are involved with the delivery of socio-economic data services.
The aim of Fast Track is to improve awareness of how Grid technologies can be applied to social science research problems as well as addressing specific training needs of early adopters of e-Science within the social science community, such as the ESRC e-social science demonstrator projects.
The objectives and outputs of Fast Track are:
- To use Access Grid as a dissemination tool for part of the ESRC Research Methods programme.
- To produce an accompanying survey and report to inform the wider social science community about effective use of Access Grid.
- The creation of learning and teaching materials for both on-line and workshop dissemination about Access Grid and related collaborative tools.
- The creation of learning and teaching materials for both on-line and workshop dissemination about the use of Grid technologies to solve social science research problems.