Stakeholders and decision makers from South Eastern European countries, representatives of Western European policy bodies, representatives of the European Commission, members of the e-Infrastructures Policy Forum (e-IPF), and Research Infrastructure project leaders participated in the event, and deliberated on regional achievements through SEERA-EI, and on future activities in order to achieve further enhancement of e-Infrastructures for the benefit of the research and education communities in the region, and build lasting synergies.

During  the  first  day,  Bernhard  Fabianek,  EC,  DG  Research  &  Innovation,  RI  Unit,  highlighted  the importance of Research Infrastructures in knowledge, education and innovation, and presented the EC priorities and vision for South East Europe. The European strategy on research infrastructures through the next  EU  Framework  Programme  "Horizon  2020"  was  presented  by  Wim  Jansen,  EC,  DG  INFSO,  e‐Infrastructures Unit. Turkish representative of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, Prof. Dr. Murat Özgören, presented the current status and future scope of e‐Infrastructures within ESFRI.
Dr. Ognjen Prnjat, SEERA‐EI and HP‐SEE projects coordinator, provided an overview of past and current SEE e‐Infrastructure projects and their contribution to the pan European e‐Infrastructure vision, with special emphasis on the SEERA‐EI project.
High‐level Turkish policy‐makers representation  on  the  first  day  of  the conference was seen as an indication on how e‐infrastructures are positioned on the R&D Agenda of Turkish Government and it was also impressive to hear about the plans on the future e‐Infrastructure vision of Turkey. The aims are to provide high capacity network for researchers, cloud infrastructure for public organizations, certified HPC center for demanding applications of industry and critical data center for disaster recovery.
Based on the  key outcomes of the SEERA‐EI project, the second day was dedicated to regional e‐Infrastructure developments and future synergies with Western Europe. SEERA‐EI has carried out a comparative analysis of national programmes in the region, and identified regional collaboration areas; an eInfrastructure national programme cookbook and white paper have been produced, providing a set of best  practices and guidelines  for  national  eInfrastructure  programmes. 

Furthermore,  joint  regional activities have been carried out, ranging from short‐term soft actions, mid‐term policy‐level actions, to preparatory activities for long–term actions. SEERA‐EI has defined a long term e‐Infrastructure strategy, summarized in a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between 11 Ministries in South East Europe.  Nine  South‐East  European  programme  managers  will  publish  in  2012  a  Pilot  Joint  Call  for Proposals in Research and skill building in scientific cloud computing.

The event was hosted by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey ‐ TÜBİTAK.
The full agenda and presentations of the SEERA‐EI Istanbul 2012 e‐Infrastructure Conference can be found
at:
http://www.fp7.org.tr/tubitak_content_files/SEERA‐EI‐02‐2012/Draft_Istanbul_Agenda_Final.pdf

Source: Press Release and http://www.seera-ei.eu/files/PR-SEERAEI-Istanbul-EN-2012-03-01.pdf