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E-Infrastructure Leadership Council Meeting (ELC 11) 08 July 2015 1430-1630 BIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET. Attendees Joint Chairs: Prof Tony Hey University of Washington

Industry Members: David Docherty Digital Television Group Andy Grant Bull Darren Green GlaxoSmithKline Andrew Jones Numerical Algorithms Group Robert Maskell Intel Andy Searle Jaguar Land Rover

Academic Members: Prof Peter Coveney University College London Prof Richard Kenway University of Edinburgh Prof Mike Payne

Public Sector Members: Dr Stuart Bell Met Office Dr Bob Day JANET Michael Gleaves (for Cliff Brereton) Hartree Centre (STFC) Dr Lesley Thompson EPSRC

Secretariat: Dr Claire Devereux BIS (Seconded from STFC) Dr Jatinder Singh BIS (Seconded from University of Cambridge)

Guests Mark Bew Digitally Built Britain Barry Blackwell Business Information Modelling (BIS) Chris Fleming Government Office for Science Michael Gleaves Hartree Centre (STFC) Richard Miller Innovate UK

Apologies Rt Hon Jo Johnson MP (co-chair) Minister of State for Universities and Science Kevin Baughan InnovateUK Paul Best Industry 42 Dr Anne-Marie Coriat RCUK Jo Daley Government Office for Science Ian Dix AstraZeneca Paul Driver BIS (Information Economy Council) Prof Robert Glen University of Cambridge Prof Douglas Kell Dr Oz Parchment University of Southampton Dr Martin Ridge BIS Mr Ed Vaisey MP Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy

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1. Welcome a Driver report describes the evolutions and future directions of the various components of Tony Hey took the Chair, welcoming members the landscape, including data, platforms and guests to the eleventh meeting of the E- (hardware, architectures, networks), software, infrastructure Leadership Council (ELC). cyber-security, training and skills. Members were thanked for their contributions regarding these The Chair gave apologies for the Minister Jo aspects. Given the ‘forward-look’ of the report, Johnson, explaining that his absence was due to more content is required on two aspects: the ongoing Summer Budget in the House of • General trends, challenges and Commons followed by the pressing need to opportunities moving forward – with a address various stakeholders following view towards 2020; announcements. • Initiatives undertaken and their successes so far – with a clear emphasis It was emphasised that the Minister is very on impact , not just a funding award. supportive of the ELC agenda, noting that the ELC The aim is to publish the report before the end of was one of the few Leadership Councils that has the year. not been postponed following the change in Government, with the Minister not wishing to The Chair then opened the floor to discussion of lose momentum given the importance of data topics and considerations relevant to the report. and e-infrastructure to the UK. Moreover, the Chair made clear that the Government recognised Lesley Thompson noted that the Government that data is a disruptive technology that will drive recognises the “Research, Innovate, Grow” economic growth, as illustrated by the promising agenda. Given the upcoming spending review, it words for related activities in the Chancellor’s was noted that investments should be evaluated Summer Budget speech. with respect to a) productivity, b) skills and c) place. ‘Place’ refers to geography, reflecting the It was explained that a goal of this meeting is to Government’s aim for a better distribution of set the direction the Council should take in investments (and income) around the UK. Place moving forward. does not only consider areas that might be disadvantaged, but also leveraging the peaks 2. Data as a Driver: E-infrastructure 2020 – associated with active clusters. Comments were report made highlighting the general need for people to come together (physically co-locate) to innovate; The Chair announced that following discussion an example was given that often a research April’s ELC meeting, an ELC report that focuses on community would be built around a data centre, the ‘e-infrastructure vision’ should be which leads to new collaboration opportunities. It commissioned, looking at the considerations, was felt that issues of place could be useful for challenges and opportunities moving forward. the report, given e-infrastructure entails both The report is the second such report of the ELC innovation clusters as well as facilitating remote and follows “ELC: One-Year On”. The report will access. be forward looking and also describe the impact and successes of the work so far undertaken, and Regarding specifics for the report, it was noted make clear the importance of maintaining that Sir Paul Nurse is currently conducting a momentum in this fast moving field. The working review of the Research Councils, and that there is title of the report is ‘Data as a Driver: E- some thought being given to a fund for infrastructure 2020’. addressing global challenges – of which data will play an important part. Moreover, the The Secretariat provided background as to importance of the UK developing and maintaining current state of the draft. The ‘ELC: One-Year On’ a world-leading data capability must be report, published Oct 2013, introduced the e- emphasised. Another consideration is how to infrastructure landscape and the opportunities bring about a change in culture, to celebrate that it presented. The current draft of the Data as those who work with data.

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study to explore the development of a It was suggested that productivity should be software accreditation scheme. This study will considered in terms of knowledge workers rather be carried out by the Software Sustainability than systems; e.g. what tools are available, and Institute. how much can be automated? Cloud (and pay- per-use) e-infrastructure delivery models are vital Mike also requested that any Members with to facilitating uptake by knowledge workers, experience in developing production software particularly by SMEs. Comments were made that from research prototypes to make contact, as the previous UK procurements have stifled SME there is little data available. uptake, by aiming at the larger, more established firms. 2. Data privacy in cloud computing: Jatinder Singh reported that the taskforce’s initial There was a general consensus that there is a recommendations included horizon scanning significant data skills gap and this point must be (technical and legislative) and improving emphasised. As e-infrastructure becomes more transparency. Current work involves the accessible the skills agenda must address issues process of identifying and determining the concerning demographics: gender, age (start-ups relevance of a number of different initiatives, for example are often run by those in their mid- both public and private sector, which will be twenties). distilled into a short report.

It was felt that another form of ‘clustering’ could Both task forces aim to conclude activities and concern data; often data is scattered into silos, publish their outputs before the next ELC with no simple means for brining data together. If meeting. The software task force may propose data could be more open and/or more easily additional topics to explore, e.g. software combined, there may be greater potential for licensing. Any proposals for more work will be put innovation. Moreover, “data has gravity” and to the Council at future meetings. tends to help form these clusters. However, there are real challenges concerning data protection, 4. On-ramp progress reports security, and privacy. The Chair, in introducing the items, acknowledged Concerning the e-infrastructure landscape more the significant efforts in producing the on-ramp generally, it was noted that HPC, cloud and big- business cases, and that several are prepared but data generally converging. Issues of data and awaiting a suitable funding opportunity. These technical management remain as on-going include Finance, BIM3 and High Value concerns. Manufacturing. The potential for funding these cases will become clearer after the Government’s A particular strength of the ELC has been in spending review, which will report Departmental linking up efforts and initiatives from a range of allocations toward the end of November. players leading to more substantial impact. It was felt this has led to a number of ELC ‘successes’ Mark Bew was invited to present on the Digital and should be captured in the report . Built Britain’s Building Information Modelling (BIM3) initiative. There is currently a BIM Level 2 3. ELC Task Force Updates programme, concerning the digital representation of an construction asset, which produced The Chair invited updates from the two significant cost savings (20% CAPEX), and the taskforces: production of world-leading standards. BIM3 moves beyond asset modelling (BIM2), to using 1. Software: Mike Payne reported that work has data flows in a smart city context: linking with involved polishing the reports, which cover a geospatial sensor technology, to help manage a range of software concerns, for publication city. Such work closely relates to the wider the before the next meeting. Further, the ESPRC Internet of Things agenda. A core competent of has made funding available for a feasibility that work is the development and refinement of

Page 3 of 4 08/07/2015 Page 4 of 4 08/07/2015 standards around data management. There is Lesley Thompson explained that 2015 marks the currently funding limited to support the core end of the first phase of PRACE. The UK aims to strategy team; full funding is sought for the BIM3 continue to be involved, but is unlikely to be a programme: a multi-million dollar programme, Tier-1 host, unless it is decided as a priority during offering significant ROI potential. the upcoming spending review.

Darren Green provided a status update on RCUK are looking at the e-infrastructure capability ADOPT: Advanced digital design of landscape across all research councils, as well as pharmaceutical therapeutics (formerly the the Met Office and JISC. The focus is more a National Digital Design Centre for medicines). The technical road-mapping activity, from different project is supported by the Advanced stakeholder perspectives. The outputs will likely Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, and be of interest to the ELC. involves a collaboration of pharmaceutical companies. It is still in the preparation stage, but It was mentioned that Howard Covington had much progress has been made. The initial projects been selected as Chair of the Turing Institute, and involve each pharmaceutical partner tackling a negotiations were underway with the proposed case study concerning a particular drug Director. There was some initial progress on manufacturing challenge. Work is e-infrastructure potential work packages. It was suggested that related, involving HPC, modelling, data generation the Director of Chair of the and pooling, etc. be invited to present at the next ELC.

5. Hartree Centre -P hase 3 update 7. Minutes, actions and other business

Michael Gleaves described the role of the Hartree The Council accepted the minutes and actions Centre in supporting the application of scientific from ELC10. concepts and processes in an industrial context. The Chair suggested that the Council produce a Hartree Phase 3, which entails a partnership with report detailing the impact and ROI for the e- IBM, focuses on “four forces for change”: (1) infrastructure investments of the coalition industrial engagement; (2) power (energy Government. This would be an internal report, efficiency, cost reduction); (3) big data, noting the focusing specifically on the outcomes of the convergence of HPC + data; (4) democratisation – investments. It was noted the National Audit ensuring knowledge workers have appropriate Office is currently producing a report into cap-ex skills and access to resources. science investments, which may be able to be reused. The collaboration with IBM will result in 24 IBM researchers being located on campus joined by a Finally, the Chair announced that Martin Ridge further 23 positions funded through the Hartree would be retiring from BIS during the next few Centre/STFC. Several statements of work are months. The Chair, on behalf of all of the Council, being developed and the first three projects are expressed much thanks and gratitude for his due to begin in September. efforts in supporting the ELC and the e- infrastructure agenda more generally, and wished It was clarified that cognitive computing is a part him well in his retirement. of Phase 3 (access to IBM’s Watson is possible), but the remit is primarily for data centric computing. Resources and platforms are selected in accordance with the particular project 8. Next meeting requirements. 04 November 2015 1430 – 1630 with lunch 6. RCUK u pdate from 1330. 1 Victoria Street, London.

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