Transforming Digital Research Infrastructure for Environmental Science

Transforming Digital Research Infrastructure for Environmental Science Robin Long Matt Dalle Piagge Joe Marsh Rossney Our purpose To advance the vital environmental science that governments, businesses, NGOs, and researchers rely on to meet the great challenges of our time. Where we are based ceh.ac.uk 3 Wallingford, southern England Edinburgh, Scotland Lancaster, northern England Bangor, north Wales Accra, Ghana What we do Environmental science to benefit the UK research community, governments, businesses and society. Large-scale monitoring and observation networks, to measure environmental change. 4 5 ceh.ac.uk What we do Work with citizens •Public engagement across our research, via citizen science, community engagement. •We provide an informed, trusted, evidenceled public voice on the environment. Large research infrastructures for: - Monitoring - Modelling - Data Science ceh.ac.uk 6 What we do What we do Lead efforts to tackle global challenges by working with United Nations agencies and programmes. Lead the way in international environmental research by adopting innovative technology. 7 Who we are - Skills A large breadth of work = large breadth of roles ceh.ac.uk 8 Who we are - Tools A large breadth of work = large breadth of tools used! ceh.ac.uk 9 What does Digital Research Infrastructure mean to us: ceh.ac.uk 16 Monitoring infrastructure •For gathering environmental data (e.g., sensors, Internet of Things devices, citizen science applications, etc.) Computational infrastructure •For processing and storing environmental science data (e.g., personal devices such as laptops, data centres such as the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC), Polar, JASMIN, etc.) Digital tools •To support development, analysis, visualisation and collaboration in environmental science (e.g., DataLabs, EIDC Catalogue, Data Stewardship Wizard, UK Resources Portal, R Shiny applications, etc.) Digital Research Infrastructure Bring together datasets, models, data science methods, and analysis and visualisation tools and platforms to explore the interaction of complex environmental systems. How do we "do" DRI: our core principles ceh.ac.uk 18 Taking digital tools that researchers use, and making them: better, easier, and more efficient. Embedding co-design and engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders to transform the societal and scientific impact of our digital research infrastructure Driving continuous innovation in our digital research infrastructure and services, learning from the environmental science and research communities, and shaping best practices Fostering inclusive, interdisciplinary collaboration and skills sharing across our teams and partnerships to build and sustain a thriving digital research ecosystem From cradle to the grave •We aim to cover inception to production. •Not all projects need to become "production" level •But we want to be able to move as seamlessly as possible when they do. •Digital Engineering tends to work in Agile/Scrum/Kanban •Digital Innovation leans more Kanban •Data and Digital uses different methods again. •Need to ensure all areas work together ceh.ac.uk 19 Theory meets practice •Agile is great for Digital Engineering •Until it's not •Science (or scientists) don't work in agile •Hardware and streaming data don't work great with Scrum methodology. •Have pivoted to Kanban for projects in prototyping stages •Scrum is good for large teams and pre-defined projects •We still have many projects where it is a single RSE or DS, kanban works better •How do we feed back to development using Scrum? ceh.ac.uk 20 Playing nice with others •Researchers don't use agile •We can get them to adopt Kanban sometimes •Large projects need management •PRINCE2 has been used as a template •Additional layer of "Technical leads" was brought in to fill the knowledge gaps. ceh.ac.uk 21 Early bird gets the worm •Get in early •The earlier we engage with researchers, the more practices we can embed. •Far easier to enhance something later if best practices were observed at the beginning. •We have to champion each other. •Researchers may request a Data Scientist, and RSE, or a Data Manager. •We need to gentle nudge them as to how other parts of Digital Research can help them. ceh.ac.uk 22 Of the People, By the People, For the People •Building DRI for all environmental science •We could build the most beautifully written software and pipelines, but it is pointless unless it is used. •Co-design and stakeholder engagement is key •We need to bring it into as many projects as possible •More chance we can re-use that software/pipeline/code for future projects ceh.ac.uk 23 Case Study #1 FDRI ceh.ac.uk31 Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) "Scalable systems to collect and analyse diverse, near real-time data from monitoring sites and catchments" Field Engineers External Cloud Providers Agile Development ceh.ac.uk 32 Breaking down barriers, gradually... •We want to extend this to other spatial subcommunities using different datasets... •...Without having to start again from scratch •We now need to iterate this co-design method, but with a progressively expanding group of stakeholders, making sure everyone is heard at each stage! ceh.ac.uk 40 •The Land Cover Map is hosted by EIDC – our colleagues •Their hard work on making data FAIR now propagates through to users •And user experience / feedback now propagates back to EIDC Closing the loop Ambitions of the Digital Research group To enable the scientific insights and impact required to address grand challenges in environmental research through state-of-the-art digital research infrastructure. Our work enables our stakeholders to: • Discover, access and integrate data more effectively • Adopt emerging technologies and best practices • Collaborate seamlessly across disciplines and institutions • Increase the sustainability of our research ceh.ac.uk 42 ceh.ac.uk 43 Our strategic roadmap to 2030 ceh.ac.uk 43 Thank you For more information please contact: [email protected] @UK_CEH ceh.ac.uk