Integrating research infrastructures into infectious diseases surveillance operations:Focus on biobanks

Technological advances in the first two decades of the 21^(st)century have profoundly impacted medical research in many ways,with large population cohorts,biological sample collections and datasets through biobanks becoming valued global resources to guide biomedical research,drug development,and medical practice.However,in order for biobanks to maximize their impact and scientific reach of their resources,they would need to act within a complex network of infrastructures and activities.Therefore,different ways have emerged in which biobanks,including those for infectious diseases,can emerge as(part of)infrastructures,integrate within existing ones,or become an independent,yet an interoperable component of the existing infrastructural landscape.However,there has been a limited understanding and study of such mechanisms to date.This perspective aims to address this knowledge gap and illustrates these three high-level ways in which such infrastructures could integrate their activities and identifies the necessary key pre-conditions for doing so,while drawing from specific examples.

New roles of research data infrastructure in research paradigm evolution

Research data infrastructures form the cornerstone in both cyber and physical spaces,driving the progression of the data-intensive scientific research paradigm.This opinion paper presents an overview of global research data infrastructure,drawing insights from national roadmaps and strategic documents related to research data infrastructure.It emphasizes the pivotal role of research data infrastructures by delineating four new missions aimed at positioning them at the core of the current scientific research and communication ecosystem.The four new missions of research data infrastructures are:(1)as a pioneer,to transcend the disciplinary border and address complex,cutting-edge scientific and social challenges with problem-and data-oriented insights;(2)as an architect,to establish a digital,intelligent,flexible research and knowledge services environment;(3)as a platform,to foster the high-end academic communication;(4)as a coordinator,to balance scientific openness with ethics needs.

Drafting an Electrostatic Charge Control Plan for a Large Scale Scientific Instrument: Guidelines and a Case Study

Large-scale scientific instruments strongly support top-level research all around the world. Besides their intrinsic merits, they often play a valuable role as pathfinders for developing and testing instrumentation and as training grounds for young researchers. Strategies and roadmaps for these facilities have become a priority for a number of private and public funding organizations. Despite the large amount of mature work done in the industrial arena, it is difficult to find documents providing clear and concise orientation on how to prevent or minimize the damage caused by electrostatic discharges (ESD) in research infrastructure. This paper aims to gather all this information to develop a static charge control plan for a large-scale scientific facility. The specific case of the static charge control plan for the installation of CTA-LST telescopes is added as an example and verification of the actual applicability of the measures proposed in this document, providing static charge in human body monitoring measurements. Specific tests performed on equipment with ESD sensitive components are also described, which helped to assess any possible damage.

The European Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure(ECCSEL)

The transition to a non-emitting energy mix for power generation will take decades. This transition will need to be sustainable, e.g.economically affordable. Fossil fuels which are abundant have an important role to play in this respect, provided that Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS) is progressively implemented. CCS is the only way to reduce emissions from energy intensive industries.Thus, the need for upgraded and new CCS research facilities is widely recognised among stakeholders across Europe, as emphasised by the Zero Emissions Platform(ZEP) [1] and the European Energy Research Alliance on CCS(EERA-CCS) [2].The European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure, ECCSEL, provides funders, operators and researchers with significant benefits by offering access to world-class research facilities that, in many cases, are unlikely for a single nation to support in isolation.This implies creation of synergy and the avoidance of duplication as well as streamlining of funding for research facilities.ECCSEL offers open access to its advanced laboratories for talented scientists and visiting researchers to conduct cutting-edge research.In the planning of ECCSEL, gap analyses were performed and CCS technologies have been reviewed to underpin and envisage the future experimental setup; 1) Making use of readily available facilities, 2) Modifying existing facilities, and 3) Planning and building entirely new advanced facilities.The investments required for the first ten years(2015-2025) are expected to be in the range of €80-120 miilion. These investments show the current level of ambition, as proposed during the preparatory phase(2011-2014).Entering the implementation phase in 2015, 9 European countries signed Letter of Intent(LoI) to join a ECCSEL legal entity: France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Norway and Switzerland(active observer). As the EU ERIC-regulation [3] would offer the most suitable legal framework for ECCSEL, the host country, Norway, will apply for establishing ERIC as the ECCSEL Research Infrastructure(RI)legal entity in 2017. Until the ECCSEL ERIC is approved by the European Commission(probably by summer 2017), an interim MoU agreement for the implementation phase of ECCSEL RI has been signed by 13 research institutions and universities representing the 9 countries. A consortium of these partners were granted 3 million EURO from Horizon 2020 to boost implementation of ECCSEL from September 2015 and two years onwards.?2016, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

On the Complexities of Federating Research Data Infrastructures

Federated Research Data Infrastructures aim to provide seamless access to research data along with services to facilitate the researchers in performing their data management tasks.During our research on Open Science(OS),we have built cross-disciplinary federated infrastructures for different types of(open)digital resources:Open Data(OD),Open Educational Resources(OER),and open access documents.In each case,our approach targeted only the resource“metadata”.Based on this experience,we identified some challenges that we had to overcome again and again:lack of(i)harvesters,(ii)common metadata models and(iii)metadata mapping tools.In this paper,we report on the challenges we faced in the federated infrastructure projects we were involved with.We structure the report based on the three challenges listed above.

Implementing Open Access Policy:First case studies

When implementing open access, policy pioneers and flagship institutions alike have faced considerable challenges in meeting their own aims and achieving a recognized success. Legitimate authority, sufficient resources and the right timing are crucial, but the professionals charged with implementing policy still need several years to accomplish significant progress. This study defines a methodological standard for evaluating the first generation of open access policies. Evaluating implementation establishes evidence, enables reflection, and may foster the emergence of a second generation of open access policies.While the study is based on a small number of cases, these case studies cover most of the pioneer institutions, present the most significant issues and offer an international overview.Each case is reconstructed individually on the basis of public documents and background information, and supported by interviews with professionals responsible for open access implementation. This article presents the highlights from each case study. The results are utilized to indicate how a second generation of policies might define open access as a key component of digital research infrastructures that provide inputs and outputs for research,teaching and learning in real time.

The heterogeneous impact of China-Europe railway express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities

Purpose-The spatiotemporal compression effect of China-Europe Railway Express(CR-Express)can reduce the filow costs of resources between China's node cities.Additionally,it can break through the limitations of low-added-value marine products,significantly impacting the logistics industry efficiency.However,there are few literature verifying and analyzing its heterogeneity.This study explores the impact of CR-Express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities and analyzes the heterogeneity.Design/methodology/approach-First,this study uses panel data to measure the efficiency of node city logistics industry.Secondiy,this study discusses the impact of the opening of CR-Express on the efficiency of logistics industry in node cities based on the multi-period differential model.Finally,according to the node city difference,the sample city experimental group is grouped for heterogeneity analysis.Findings-The results show that CR-Express can promote the urban logistics industry efficiency,with an average effect of 4.55%.According to the urban characteristics classification,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the efficiency improvement effect of logistics industry in inland cities is more obvious.The improvement effect of node cities and central cities in central and western China is stronger,especially in the sample of megacities and type I big cities.Compared with non-value chain industrial products,the CR-Express has significant promotion effects on the logistics efficiency of the cities where main goods are value chain products.Originality/value-Under the background of double cycle development,this paper can provide a scientific basis for the investment benefit evaluation of CR-Express construction and the follow-up route planning.

Biobanking in LMIC settings for infectious diseases: Challenges and enablers

Biobanking facilities are well established in high-income settings,where substantial funding has been invested in infrastructure.In contrast,such facilities are much less developed in resource-restricted settings.However,low-and middle-income countries(LMICs)still face a disproportionately high infectious diseases burden.Thus,the further development of infrastructure facilities,including biobanks is warranted as an important component of this unfolding clinical research environment.This perspective manuscript summarises the challenges and enablers for biobanking in LMICs,with a particular focus on infectious diseases,incorporating some of the lessons learned from the recent coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic.