The European Astrophysical Virtual Observatory Project is a Phase-A, three year study for the design and implementation of a VirtualObservatory for European astronomy. It began in November 2001 and ends in November 2004.

The AVO was funded under the EU FP5 Horizontal Programme Improving human research potential & the socio-economic knowledge-base at http://www.cordis.lu/improving/infrastructure/home.htm with the other Astrophysical programmes funded under this FP5 call (includes AVO, AstroVirtel, Access to ENO, Opticon, Astro-Wise, etc).

The project now has both a public web page and an its own AVO Twiki - look there for AVO material.

Below however is a handy collection of some key AVO documents. Most of these are Astrogrid inputs to AVO, but key things of interest include :

• The Project Plan agreed with the EU in November 20001

• The First Annual Report submitted to the EU.

• The latest proposals to the EU :
  • VO-INT Proposal (PDF) - I3 to FP6-2002-Infrastructures-1 - Transnational Access and Integrating Activities - deadline 15 April 2003. (INFRASTR-2.1: Integrating activities combining cooperation networks with transnational access and research projects - I3)
    • successful proposals in this call included:
      • Opticon
      • RadioNet
  • VO-Net Proposal (Word) - I3 to FP6-2002-Infrastructures-2 - Communication Network Development - Grids - deadline 6 May 2003. (INFRASTR-3: Communication network development in conjunction with thematic priority 2 (Information Society Technologies) to establish a high-capacity and high-speed communications network for all researchers in Europe (GÉANT) and specific high performance Grids and test-beds (GRIDs) CA, SSA, I3)
    • successful proposals in this call included:
      • EGEE :Enabling Grids for E-science and industry in Europe
      • DEISA: Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputingh Applications

A successor project to AVO is now in the proposal stage, known as the EURO-VO project. Progress so far is detailed in a separate wiki-page, EuroVOPlans.

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Options for Euro-VO proposals

IST

FP6 activity area Information society technologies is the successor to the FP5 programme:

• IST-FP5 http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ist-fp5.html

The relevant call for EURO-VO in this area is:

• FP6-2003-IST-2 - IST-2002-2.3.5: Research Networking Test beds, IP, NoE^?, STREP, CA, SSA

- probably with an IP - Integrated Projects. This area has Euro 25M attached to it. Deadline 15 Oct 2003

To quote from the info on this area:

'This work is complementary to and in support of the activities carried out in the area of Research Infrastructures on high-capacity and high-speed communications network for all researchers in Europe (GÉANT) and specific high performance Grids.

Objectives: To integrate and validate, in the context of user-driven large scale test-beds, the state-of-the-art technology that is essential for preparing the future upgrades in the infrastructure deployed across Europe. This should help support all research fields and identify the opportunities that such technology offers together with its limitations. The work is essential for fostering the early deployment in Europe of Next Generation Information and Communications Networks based upon all-optical technologies and new Internet protocols and for incorporating the most up-to-date middleware.

Focus is on:

• Integrating, testing, validating and demonstrating new networking technologies - including disruptive technologies - and services (e.g. IP (Internet Protocol) over photonics, GMPLS, new routing and protocol schemes, access technologies, photonic networks, lambda and terabit networking, global networking, distributed architectures, storage, configuration, security, billing and charging mechanisms, QoS^?, autonomous administration) in real-world settings and production environments.
• Developing roadmaps and strategic guidance for infrastructure development in Europe, promoting specialised training and education on related advanced topics, promoting centres of excellence (e.g. GRIDs technology centres) and technology and know-how transfer, thus contributing towards strengthening and enhancing the European initiatives on Research Infrastructures.
• Fostering interoperability of solutions across different scientific and industrial disciplines in an effort to achieve broader-scale up-take of new state-of-the-art infrastructure technology and promoting the creation of standards and a continued effort to strengthen contributions to open-source objectives.

The RTD, taking place in the context of large scale experimentation in real settings, is expected to promote interoperability across heterogeneous technology domains, facilitate interoperability of solutions across different scientific and industrial communities, support the creation of standards, promote economies of scale during the validation phase and achieve broader-scale up-take of technology across numerous user communities. Involvement of demanding user communities is crucial.

Work should, where appropriate, enhance, complement and exploit synergies with the relevant national and international initiatives.'

The research networking testbeds info day (july 15 2003) - see http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/agenda-150703.htm - gives a list of presentations from likely project proposals to this area.

The research networking IST pages are at http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/home.html. Contacts are listed at http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/whoswho.htm - probably Kyriakos BAXEVANIDIS and Antonella KARLSON in our area.

Angle could be eEurope - eResearch - see http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/index_en.htm and see http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/eeurope.htm - looks like Antonella Karlson is the contact.

Research Infrastructures

FP6 activity area Research infrastructures is the successor to two FP5 programmes:

• The Horizontal Programme Improving human research potential & the socio-economic knowledge-base at http://www.cordis.lu/improving/infrastructure/home.htm - this funded the AVO, Opticon, AstroVirtel etc.
• KA "Research Networking" of the IST (Information Society Technologies) Programme at: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/home.html - this funded (see http://www.cordis.lu/ist/rn/project_list.htm ) DATAGRID, GRIDlab etc.

A relevant group setting priorities in the research infrastructures domain is the European Strategy Forum for Research infrastructures - see their 2003 report at ftp://ftpnl.cordis.lu/pub/era/documents/infra_esfri_report03.pdf

If a Euro-VO proposal is entered into the FP6-2002-Infrastructures-4 call - then Euro-VO should aim to attend the 20-22 November 2003 meeting: International Conference on Research Infrastructures: Centres of Exchange, Training and Excellence for the European Research Area

The relevant call for EURO-VO in this area is:

• FP6-2002-Infrastructures-4 - Design Studies, Construction of New Infrastructures and Accompanying Measures - deadline 4 March 2004 (but note Proposal notification is essential for this call)
  • aim at INFRASTR-5: Construction of new infrastructures (see p14 of ftp://ftpnl.cordis.lu/pub/fp6_wp/sp2/en/s_wp_200204_en.pdf ): optimising of European infrastructures by providing limited support in duly justified cases, alongside with other funding agencies - with an SSA - Specific Support Actions - http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/instr_ssa.htm. Focus would be on linking VO to include candidate counties, small research groups, etc.

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Relevant EU web pages

• Research directorate at http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/index_en.cfm
  • Research DG FP6 pages at http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/index_en.html
    • Support for Research infrastructures at http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/infrastructures.htm
• Information Society directorate at http://europa.eu.int/information_society/index_en.htm
  • IST research pages at http://europa.eu.int/information_society/programmes/research/index_en.htm
  • IST in FP6 at http://www.cordis.lu/ist/home.html

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-- AndyLawrence - 28 Apr 2003

-- NicholasWalton - 17 Sep 2003