The real value of open data for the research community is not to access them, but to process them as conveniently as possible in order to reduce time-to-result and increase productivity. RAISE project will provide the infrastructure for a distributed crowdsourced data processing system, moving from open data to open access data for processing. 

Our team has the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Evdokimos Konstantinidis, Project Coordinator of the RAISE Project. Read the Interview. 

What does RAISE stand for?

RAISE stands for "Research Analysis Identifier System", a unique concept for sharing and processing data that enables the research community to publish their work with evidence-based authenticity (RAI) of the data analysis performed, ensuring at the same time the accreditation of their work. 

What novelties does RAISE project bring to the table? 

Although most researchers would agree that data sharing is ideal, there is widespread scepticism regarding making data publicly accessible. There are many reasons behind researchers' hesitation: e.g., the effort required, IPRs, ethical concerns, not a requirement, fear of being scooped, fear of misinterpretation, lack of awareness, and fear of not being given a proper citation. 

Reproducible research and state-of-the-art approaches like federated machine learning and blockchain for security attempt to address some of the primary reasons behind researchers' hesitation, albeit with some limitations and constraints.

Dr. Evdokimos Konstantinidis during the kick-off event, Source, Twitter

This is where RAISE comes in, recognising the fact that there is inherent value in processing and data and not just owning the data, and aims at promoting a transparent way of processing through a crowdsourced network. RAISE provides a novel way of enabling the research community to publish their outcomes with evidence-based authenticity of the data-analysis performed, ensuring at the same time the accreditation of their work.

It is built upon the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship to enhance the Open Science ecosystem and EOSC with services that enable the FAIRness of data. In that direction, RAISE brings the processing algorithm (small size) to the dataset (large size) instead of downloading the dataset to the computer where the processing algorithm is. To increase the processing capacity of the dataset repositories, RAISE borrows the crowdsourcing concept where researchers can easily integrate into the existing workflows computers serving both their datasets and the processing capacity.

Who will benefit from RAISE and how?

Researchers (as data providers) will gain accreditation for their contributions and data plagiarism for originality and ownership. Researchers (as data processors) will have more data available to be processed, more processing resources and tools for replicability and reproducibility and will spend more time focusing on the interpretation of the analysis and the quality of results rather than the technical issues. 

RAISE will provide researchers and research communities with the necessary tools to publish, analyse, reproduce, validate and re-use datasets and scientific results.  

Publishers will also benefit from having a more transparent peer review process.Companies will also be able to take advantage of available datasets as RAISE ensures the acknowledgment of contribution/IPRs to the dataset provider.

RAISE seeks to provide the infrastructure for a distributed crowdsourced data processing system by sending the algorithm to the dataset instead of sending the data to the algorithm." Why is this important?

The value is on processing the data and not on owning the data, while the fear of the research community is that if others get their data, they cannot track its usage. In RAISE, the data remains at the owner's premises while anyone from the network can process it by sending the processing algorithm to the provider.  This will definitely reduce the bandwidth requirements needed when a researcher wants to process and analyse larger data volumes.

How can RAISE change the researchers' culture?

For sure the research community should move towards Open Science and open data sharing. On the other hand, the researchers' concerns about publicly opening their data can be justified. There is a need for cultural change, which is always a process that takes time.

RAISE is primarily designed to address the main concerns of researchers in sharing their data.

Based on recent surveys, the main storage preference of the researchers is their personal computers or institutional data centres. RAISE starts from this point, taking this for granted, as it requires minimum cultural change. RAISE does not aim to disrupt the way researchers work so that it can support researchers to reduce time-to-result.

What do you envisage achieving by the end of the project?

By the end of the project, we expect that RAISE will act as a "game changer" for Open Science, introducing a new way of data sharing that could be considered in the future as a best practice. To experiment in this direction, three real-life use cases and integrate the RAISE system into the EOSC portal. We expect to document evidence on reducing the effort required by the research community and increasing the efficiency in sharing datasets. We also expect that a community will be formed that will embrace the crowdsourced trustworthy environment. 

What actions should be taken in order for RAISE to be widely accepted?

RAISE needs to build and constantly engage the RAISE community of stakeholders which will constantly test, try and evaluate the system in order to give valuable feedback.

The community engagement will be supported by OpenAIRE and ATHENA Research Center which have strong collaboration networks in EOSC.

Three big datathon events will assist in engaging external researchers. RAISE partners that have strong collaborations within the research community should act as a starting point for spreading the word about the RAI system uptake. In addition, the consortium of RAISE started meeting the research community by organising local/national events.

 Learn more about the RAISE Project here and follow RAISE on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest developments. 

Family photo during the kick-off meeting of the RAISE Project
Thessaloniki, November 2022
Source:  Twitter