The EU funded EUDAT project is developing a European collaborative data infrastructure for e-science, as a layer in the overall European scientific e-infrastructure to complement the computing layer (EGI, DEISA, PRACE) and the networking layer (GÉANT). The project, which includes 23 partners from 13 countries, started on 1st October 2011 with a total budget of €16.3M. Partners include research communities, data centres, technology providers and funding agencies. The EUDAT objective is to deliver a Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI) with the capacity and capability for meeting researchers' needs in a flexible and sustainable way, across geographical and disciplinary boundaries and will allow researchers to share data within and among communities, providing a solution that is affordable, trustworthy, robust, persistent and easy to use.
This talk will describe the progress which has been made to date and EUDAT's initial service offerings. It will also outline some of the challenges facing this ambitious project in providing a solution for cross-disciplinary research, preparing for the so-called "data tsunami" and developing a sustainable business model.