e-infrastructure and Scientific Data Centres

Simon Lambert¹

¹ e-Science Centre, Science and Technology Facilities Council,
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Didcot OX11 0QX, UK
e-mail: S.C.Lambert@rl.ac.uk

The scientific facilities at the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the UK generate large quantities of data. Additionally, STFC hosts data centres receiving data from other sources, such as the British Atmospheric Data Centre. Two key issues arise when thinking about modern scientific data centres: integrating them fully into the scientific life cycle, particularly "closing the loop" with publications; and the need for preservation and curation of the data for the future. Work has been done in the CLADDIER project on linking publications held in institutional repositories with data holdings at the BADC, and on citation, location and deposition of data. Additionally, some of STFC's data holdings are acting as testbeds for a major project on digital preservation, CASPAR. The challenges of preserving scientific data will be outlined, and the CASPAR approach described.