About

S-Cube, the Software Services and Systems Network, will establish an integrated, multidisciplinary, vibrant research community which will enable Europe to lead the software-services revolution, thereby helping shape the software-service based Internet which is the backbone of our future interactive society.

Motivation

An integration of research expertise and an intense collaboration of researchers in the field of software services and systems are needed to address the following key problems:

• Research fragmentation: Current research activities are fragmented and each research community (e.g., grid computing or software engineering) concentrates mostly on its own specific techniques, mechanisms and methodologies. As a result the proposed solutions are not aligned with or influenced by activities in related research fields.
• Future Challenges: One challenge, as an example, is to build service-based systems in such a way that they can self-adapt while guaranteeing the expected level of service quality. Such an adaptation can be required due to changes in a system’s environment or in response to predicted and unpredicted problems.

Expected Impact

S-Cube will pursue the following objectives which will have a long-lasting impact on European research:

• Re-aligning, re-shaping and integrating research agendas of key European players from diverse research areas. By synthesizing and integrating diversified knowledge, a long-lasting foundation for steering research and for achieving innovation at the highest level will be achieved.
• Inaugurating a Europe-wide common program of education and training for researchers and industry. This will create a common culture that will have a profound impact on the future of the field.
• Establishing a pro-active mobility plan to enable cross-fertilisation, which will foster the integration of research communities and the establishment of a common software services research culture.
• Establishing trust relationships with industry. Via European Technology Platforms (specifically NESSI) a catalytic effect in shaping European research, strengthening industrial competitiveness and addressing main societal challenges will be accomplished.
• Defining a broader research vision and perspective. This will shape the software-service based Internet of the future and will accelerate economic growth and improve the living conditions of European citizens.

Technical Approach

To reach the above objectives, S-Cube brings together over 70 researchers and over 50 Ph.D. students from 16 institutions, which jointly carry out the following activities:

Figure 1: The S-Cube Activities

Integration Activities 

Integration activities tackle fragmentation and isolation of research by different means:

• IA-1: First, a knowledge model will be developed that captures terminology and competences of S-Cube partners and their research. This will support eliminating the duplication of research efforts, better adjusting research activities of beneficiary institutions and restructuring already existing research agendas.
• IA-2: Second, by providing a diverse and vigorous program of education, training and specialist courses for researchers as well as an intensive mobility plan within the network, a cross-fertilisation of knowledge and durable research integration will be achieved.
• IA-3: Finally, the results from the two joint research activities are integrated and validated using pilot industry case studies and other empirical research methods.
  

Joint Research Activities

Work in S-Cube will be guided by the S-Cube research framework (see figure below), which clearly distinguishes between principles and methods for engineering and adapting service-based systems and the technology which is used to realize those systems while taking into account cross-cutting issues like Quality of Service (QoS) and SLA compliance. The two joint research activities provide the following research results:

• JRA-1: Joint Research Activity 1 is concerned with engineering, adaptation and quality assurance methodologies for service-based applications.
• JRA-2: Joint Research Activity 2 deals with realisation mechanisms for service-based systems within the different layers of a service-based application.
  

Figure 2: The S-Cube Research Framework

To achieve coherent, integrated and consistent research results, the research activities will be guided by the integration activity IA-3 devoted to baselining, extending, validating and improving the research contributions of S-Cube.

Spreading of Excellence Activity

This activity (SoE-1) will ensure a broad dissemination of research results, stimulate industrial and commercial interest, and enhance the public visibility of the research conducted within the network. This includes – besides other means – the S-Cube Web Portal, the organisation of international conferences and specialised workshops and summer schools, as well as a European Ph.D. programme.

Management Activity

Openness

S-Cube invites organizations, research groups or researchers to join S-Cube as associate members on the basis of the identified research gaps. Associate members will be paid travel and subsistence. They will gain access to S-Cube internal information and may participate in S-Cube meetings.

The S-Cube Factsheet