ECAR, the subscription research program within EDUCAUSE, has issued a major report on IT and Research Computing:

IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study
Harvey Blustain, Act IV Consulting, Inc., with Sandra Braman, ECAR and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Richard N. Katz, ECAR; and Gail Salaway, ECAR. 147 pages

This study explores the practices and perspectives of IT organizations that support the academic research enterprise. To collect, analyze, and distribute information across an expanding range academic disciplines and geographic locations, research efforts rely heavily on IT infrastructure, people, and a broad range of IT services. Ever-larger data sets are being collected and shared, simulations and visualization are becoming routine tools, and the co-evolution of science and computing increasingly requires scientists to have solid grounding in information management. This ECAR study reports the results of a variety of research initiatives: a literature review, quantitative and qualitative data from 328 higher education institutions (315 U.S. and 13 Canadian institutions), and five in-depth cases studies.

ECAR reports (including this one) are typically restricted to subscribers. For more detail on this report, and how to obtain it, see:

http://www.educause.edu/ers0605/

and

http://www.educause.edu/ResearchStudies/1010

HOWEVER, ECAR HAS MADE AVAILABLE A PUBLIC SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS, WHICH YOU CAN OBTAIN HERE:

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/ers/ERS0605/ekf0605.pdf

Another report that is part of this overall study which will be of interest to CNI-announce readers is "What Do Researchers Need? Higher Education IT from a Researcher's Perspective" by Sandra Braman; details are here:

http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ECP0601

Unfortunately, there's no corresponding free summary for this report, though you may find Sandra Braman's article from the July Educause Review on "Transformations of the Research Enterprise" helpful. This is freely available and is at:

http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ERM0641

Clifford Lynch

Director, CNI