e-Research
e-Research refers to the development of, and the support for, information and computing technologies to facilitate all phases of research processes. It's concerned with technologies that support all the processes involved in research including (but not limited to) creating and sustaining research collaborations and discovering, analysing, processing, publishing, storing and sharing research data and information. Typical technologies in this domain include: Virtual Research Environments, Grid computing, visualisation services, and text and data mining services.
The Research Information Network is a useful resource for general information for the UK Research and Information community.
e-Science
This section of the JISC Legal website relates to the legal issues arising out of the e-Science research community. For more information see the www.jisc.ac.uk website.
The UK e-Science programme is a coordinated initiative between the Research Councils and the DTI. It seeks to develop technologies which support the sharing of large digital data collections and computing resources in order to enhance research and innovation across the scientific communities. Development of these tools and technologies for e-Science are a subset of JISC's 'e-Research' activities. In 2002, it established its Committee for Support of Research to fund projects that establish best practice and develop prototype services and tools for the research community. Further information is available at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience
The use of these new technologies will inevitably carry with them many legal responsibilities and implications. All the areas of law covered by the JISC Legal service are relevant e.g. Intellectual property rights and protection of research subjects' personal data should be considered if sharing findings with other research groups. Public access rights to information under the Freedom of Information and disability legislation should be thought through when working with groups funded by various sources. Data security and the vulnerability to malicious attack via the technologies will increase as the systems become larger and more dispersed. For further information on legal issues, please use the menu on the left to access JISC Legal materials.
e-Science and the Law Links
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=wg_standardlicensing_report
The Publishers Association / JISC model licence framework for material supplied in electronic form
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=wg_clearance_report
This report was written to support the work of the JISC / Publisher's Association Clearance Mechanisms Working Party. It considers the issues relating to clearance of rights by Higher Education institutions for the digitisation of materials originally produced in printed format.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=projman_copyright
Jisc copyright and licensing guidelines.
http://www.innovation.gov.uk/lambertagreements/
Model research collaboration agreements devised by the Lambert Working Group. They aim to facilitate negotiations between potential collaborators.