On the 19th of November, 2024 the Special Interest Group on Research Engagement Development (SIG-RED) met at the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef). SIG-RED was visiting to gain a better understanding of research developments in the Netherlands, and offer a chance for the NREN community to learn from the researchers’ challenges and needs there directly.
The agenda for the day consisted of a tour of the Nikhef data centre, dark matter laboratory and the fabrication facility for neutrino detectors. Along with the tour there were a number of presentations from leading researchers in the Netherlands.
David Groep of Nikhef presented research in particle physics and astroparticle physics. Amongst others, Nikhef is a research partner of the CERN institute in Switzerland and a member of the European Gravitational Observatory. He also highlighted the importance of software and shared e-infrastructure to research to bring ‘dead’ data to life.
Andre Gunst of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) spoke about LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) which is being used to detect low-frequency radio signals from the cosmos. Jeroen Koelemeij of VU Amsterdam and Sander Klemann of SURF, the Dutch NREN presented the time and frequency transfer and the new network being designed across Europe to facilitate that.
Throughout, one theme kept recurring, and that was about speedy access to data. NRENs for many years have provided the underlying infrastructure that allows access to data but now research has evolved to a point where data needs to be transformed into information and knowledge in a matter of hours.
Following the presentations and the tour, the discussions turned to how to progress research engagement as well as focussing on some of the outcomes of the day.
About the SIG-RED: Special Interest Group on Research Engagement Development
The SIG-RED is a collaboration of international national research and education network (NREN) organisations, who are working together to develop methods for engaging with researchers and collaborations on a national and international scale through a series of reports, workshops, and best practices. SIG-RED focuses on working with local research support offices and IT departments to help researchers use networks and related tools to improve their use of computing, data, and facilities, either on a local, national or international scale.
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More about SIG-RED: https://community.geant.org/tf-red/
