NeIC support to NeGI

The Nordic e-science globalisation initiative (NeGI) [1] is an organisation that, like NeIC, is hosted by Nordforsk [2]. While NeIC promotes Nordic collaboration on e-infrastructure for research, NeGI promotes Nordic collaboration in research using e-science tools, for example through the establishment of Nordic centers of excellence (NCoE) in strategically chosen fields.

NeIC can support NeGI in several ways. For example:

• Acting as a proxy to the national e-infrastructure providers, as necessary, to assist the NCoEs in discovering and getting access to the national e-infrastructure services that they are entitled to and which they can use to further their research.
• Running directed e-infrastructure projects tailored to meet the specific demands in the NCoE.

Such an e-infrastructure project:

• can collaborate with, but not fund, activities outside the countries participting in NeIC.
• should not have no part of salaries for e-infrastructure personnel funded by NeGI.
• is launched based on a collaboration agreement that specifies the framework for the collaboration including funding commitments, and where one of the attachments is a project directive that describes the background, scope and expected outcome of the project.
• should be governed by a steering group (cf #steering group below).
• should be led by a dedicated project leader whose time contribution should be funded 100% by NeIC.
• should be advised by a reference group of senior experts and/or researchers that have a vested interest in the success of the project, by invitation by project leader. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the steering group to ensure that the reference group has suitable composition to sufficintly cover the scope of the project.
• should be staffed by personnel from organizations in the various participating countries, as suitable for meeting the needs in the project and according to where appropriate expertise is located in the various countries.
• should have a means for NeIC to follow progress, to be able to report back to its funders. Weekly management meetings with project leader is sufficient. NeIC does not require time reporting.
• deliver results to the NeGI center, who then own the results, to take up, disseminate and ensure continued operations of to the best of their ability in the interest of Open Science. NeIC wishes to be seen as a facilitator of collaborations, and does not claim any ownership of any results past delivery.
• should be communicated in a way that does not diminish the contributions of any partner. For example in presentations, it is sufficient for NeIC to have the NeIC logo present in one of the slides, for example together with the other partner logos. See the NeIC stance on branding.

Steering group

NeIC project steering groups usually have one representative from each of the funding partners. However, when supporting NeGI NCoEs under the terms stated above, some projects could have NeIC as the only funding partner, which could be taken as to imply that the steering group should be composed of only NeIC, which is generally not very suitable for a support project to meet specific needs in another organization.

The steering group could in these cases be composed of one representative from each of:

• NeIC, as doers, funders, and "project owner". This person could for example be a NeIC area coordinator.
• The NeGI NCOE, as orderer and recipient of deliveries and results. This person could for example be the NeGI NCoE center director or research coordinator, or a team leader.
• NeGI, as neutral third party. This person could for example be the NeGI director.