This support is part of one of the framework agreements for the provision of R&D for hybrid, end-to-end archival and preservation services that meet the innovation challenges of European research communities.
ARCHIVER Project will introduce significant improvements in archiving and digital preservation services. It will support the IT requirements of European scientists and provide cost-effective services to cope with the sustained high levels of data generated in the context of scientific research projects, which can be in the petabytes range.
Marco Marigliano, CEO of RHEA Systems S.p.A said, “Currently, many projects fall short of being able to store the high levels of data generated because archiving and preservation services are inadequate or fall below expectations. It frequently happens that many people underestimate the cost of archiving during the planning phase.
“The RHEA ARCHIVER Project consortium is one of the procurers aiming to create an ecosystem for specialist ICT companies active in archiving and digital preservation that are willing to introduce innovative services capable of supporting the expanding needs of researchers in different scientific domains. ARCHIVER will fulfil these data management requirements in a multi-disciplinary environment, allowing each research group to retain responsibility and stewardship of their data while leveraging best practices, standards and economies of scale.”
ARCHIVER Project will provide:
- Research-ready commercial services for data archiving and preservation, co-designed, co-developed and co-tested by the research community partnering with industry expertise.
- A trustworthy repository service with a transparent business model adapted to the requirements of long-term preservation of data.
The ARCHIVER service will be ready to be commercialized by December 2021 when it will become part of the catalogue of the European Open Science Cloud. The project is managed by a consortium of procurer research organisations, such as CERN and DESY, as well as experts (Addestino and Trust-IT) and is being funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Launched in January 2019, the ARCHIVER Project has a total procurement budget of €3.4 million and is competitively procuring R&D services from firms in three stages covering design, prototyping and a pilot service. RHEA has been selected for the first phase together with other four consortia. The phase will focus on service design and last four months and be followed by a further procurement for phase 2, when three consortia out of five will be selected for proceeding with the service prototyping activities.
About RHEA Group
RHEA Group is a privately-owned professional engineering and solutions company, providing bespoke engineering solutions, system development and security services for space, military, government and other critical national infrastructure organizations. Since its creation in 1992, RHEA has built a reputation as a trusted partner, developing tailored solutions that help drive organizational and cultural initiatives, leading to sustainable added value for its customers.
Headquartered in Belgium, RHEA Group employees over 500 people and has offices in Belgium, UK, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Canada, and works at clients’ premises throughout Europe and North America. RHEA is ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified.