e-Science and the VL-e approach
L.O. (Bob) Hertzberger, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the
A short overview will be presented of the challenges and research issues in Grid and e-Science. It will be outlined what the drivers for Grid as well as e-Science developments are and what consequences this has for their respective developments. In addition it will be illustrated that based on the different driver incentives e-Science and Grid are considerable different developments. Based on this view we have developed our Virtual Laboratory for e-Science project of which the research philosophy will be presented. The basic ideas behind this project, in which a problem solving environment partly consisting of generic and partly of application specific software plays a crucial role, will be given. Illustrations will be chosen from different scientific domains. The research methodology chosen in this project which requires two different e-Science ICT environments will be further discussed together with the impact this has on the ICT infrastructure. It will be explained how we believe that this methodology can be a basis for the further roll-out of an e-Science ICT research infrastructure in the Netherlands, of which the first part will be realised in the near future because of the acceptance of the so-called BIG-GRID proposal.