Resource Discovery for Researchers in e-Social Science Project Overview.

ReDRess is a joint project between Lancaster University and STFC Daresbury, directed by Prof. Robert Crouchley (Director of e-Science, Lancaster), Dr. Rob Allan (Technical Director, STFC e-Science Centre, Daresbury) and Ms Rachel Fligelstone (ICT Focus, Lancaster). It is funded jointly by JISC, the ESRC, Lancaster University and STFC Daresbury.

The main aim of the project is to raise awareness and accelerate the development of a new kind of computing and data infrastructure to support the increasingly national and global collaborations emerging in many areas of social science.


Other aims of the project are:

The project will also develop a Web portal, which will be the main environment and mechanism for delivery of material to end users.

The web-based resource discovery portal ReDReSS brings together and integrates all resources that are of value to the e-Social Scientist. Resources are presented as a co-ordinated series of stepping stones, taking the researcher from developing an awareness of what can be achieved using Grid technologies to finally using it in their own research. Initially the portal will raise awareness by providing illustrations of the potential of e-Social Science. Ultimately, it will include descriptions of, and pointers to, projects that are exemplars of e-Social Science research

ReDReSS extends the service provided by TRAMSS (Teaching Resources and Materials for Social Scientists, tramss.data-archive.ac.uk /index.asp) to make e-Science relevant to substantive researchers in the social sciences. The materials use different media such as online audio and video materials, real-time software middleware demonstrations, and Impatica PowerPoint presentations. These e-Learning resources are being developed under the ESRC-funded National Training and Support Service for Quantitative Social Science at Lancaster (www.cas..lancs.ac.uk/e-learning/). All materials will be freely available.