Supporting open science The ability to share information is crucial to scientific progress, yet it is not easy to manage and share the vast amounts of data generated at Photon and Neutron Research Infrastructures (PaN RIs). We spoke to Professor Dr Patrick Fuhrmann and Dr Sophie Servan about the work of the ExPaNDS project in creating a framework for effective data management and supporting open science. The PaN RIs found across Europe play an important role in scientific research, helping scientists from a wide variety of different disciplines gain deeper insights into major questions in their fields. Facilities like DESY, HZDR and HZB in Germany, ALBA in Spain, MAX IV in Sweden, PSI in Switzerland, Elettra in Italy, SOLEIL in France, and Diamond Light Source, UKRI / STFC in the UK are home to sophisticated equipment which are used to generate photon and neutron beams. “What we do at DESY is accelerate electrons. We have mechanisms to produce electrons from high-energy, intense rays of very brilliant photon beams which are extremely short,” explains Professor Patrick Fuhrmann, Group Leader of ‘Research and Innovation’ at DESY, an accelerator centre based in Hamburg. The wider societal benefit of these facilities lies in what is done using these bright beams; Professor Fuhrmann says experiments are conducted at the very end of research in what is called a beamline. “The beamlines can be used for experiments on batteries, quantum technology and medical applications for instance. Essentially, they are relevant for any topic where you need to look at processes which are occurring on very small scales,” he outlines.
ExPaNDS project These types of experiments often generate enormous amounts of data, mainly in the form of images, which can become progressively more difficult to manage and share with other researchers as the volume increases. This issue lies at the heart of the ExPaNDS project, a European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant which brings together 10 European PaN RIs, as well as the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) federation. “Our goals in the project are two-fold. First of all, we want to create a policy framework for the facilities, so that they have a certain way of processing the data on the policy level. This is about agreements between a facility
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The ExPaNDS project kick-off meeting, 9th November 2019.
and their customers - the scientists who produce the data,” says Professor Fuhrmann. A second major goal in the project relates more to the technical level. “We discuss possible formats for the data with the different facilities, and we encourage them to use the same formats. This relates also
wider goal of ensuring that data is shared according to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. “Metadata fields have been defined and agreed, and this enables interoperability,” says Dr Sophie Servan, leader of the Management and Sustainability work package within ExPaNDS.
Do scientists really have to come to the facility to conduct their research? Up to now the answer was yes, but the real answer is actually no, only the samples have to come to the facility. Everything else can be done in an automated way. to the meta-data of the data, such as the frequency, the energy level and the time,” continues Professor Fuhrmann. “We want to encourage the facilities and the beamlines to record this data in a similar fashion, so that it can be more easily understood later on.” The data and meta-data captured from samples at these Photon and Neutron (PaN) facilities are mainly recorded in a standardised format called Nexus. This is part of the
On the technical level, the standardised file format ensures that different applications can open files, while Professor Fuhrmann says it’s also important that there is a common vocabulary used in association with the data. “We are trying to convince everyone to use the same key words, which is important to help Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications scan the data effectively,” he stresses. “The data relevant to a researcher is stored
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