The latest European Union Commission funding programmes have built up a significant momentum for the deployment of e-Infrastructures. Today there is a need to assess clearly the pros and cons of recent investments and to address more effectively the next ones.

The mission of the ERINA+ project is to assess the socio-economic impact of e-Infrastructures and develop an assessment methodology for e-Infrastructures projects to self-evaluate their own impact.

It has been successfully held the session in Munich @EGI-CF 2012 on the methodologies for assessing the impact of eInfrastructures (Impact of e-Infrastructures: Theories and practices of assessment methodologies), which allowed five major projects involved in this field to confront each other and with an audience of representatives of projects of eInfrastructure domain.

ERINA+, Ri-Impact, e-FISCAL, OSIRIS and eNventory have shared their experiences in the analysis and, then, in the development of a methodology for evaluation and monitoring EU research infrastructures. Interesting and constructive has been the feedback coming from the attendees (24 representatives of 21 among projects and other entities involved in research in Europe).

At the end of February 2012, another important project, Mantychore, has added to and enriched the list of collaborating projects with ERINA+.

Following the Iaas paradigm, Mantychore project enables NRENs and other e-Infrastructure providers to enhance their service portfolio, by building and deploying SW and tools, so to provide infrastructure resources like routers, switches, optical devices and IP networks as a service to virtual research communities: Network as a Service.

To learn more about Mantychore project, click here.