Open access to research information is becoming more and more vital for today's global community. Research, government and enterprise can all benefit from reliable, open access, interoperable Digital Repository infrastructures. This seminar, the first of six OGF-Europe Community Outreach Seminars (COS), showcases how grid technologies are supporting the Digital Repositories (DR) agenda, highlighting how grid is pertinent in vertical and horizontal domains of Digital Repositories and emphasizing best practices and case studies through examples of user adoption. Special emphasis has also been placed on how DRs (and their related infrastructure) can be supported by "operational" budgets, and not just by research projects.

The presentations and outcomes of the interactive discussions will feature in the OGF23 report led by OGF-Europe. The report will detail user "state of the art" in the area of DRs, key stakeholders leveraging DRs in a grid environment, as well as requirements to be considered for future enhancements.

Chaired by David De Roure, University of Southampton, participants will gain new knowledge on:

State-of-the-art and future visions: Krystyna Marek, (GEANT and e-Infrastructures" Unit of INFSO, European Commission) introduced Scientific Repository projects within the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7). This was followed by perspectives from Andreas Aschenbrenner, (TEXTGrid) on the Research sector; Fabrizio Gagliardi, Microsoft Research and Chairman of the OGF-Europe Industry Expert Panel, on the industry sector; and finally insight into the sector of government.

User case studies from specific domains focussing on solutions to key challenges and user requirements are highlighted with specific examples from, Luigi Fusco, GENESI-DR and DEGREE; Donatella Castelli, ISTI-CNR; Francoise Genova, EuroVO-AIDA, and Mark Hedges, Centre for e-Research, King's College, UK.

Key horizontal issues were showcased. Pasquale Pagano ISTI-CNR gave insight into data, services and computing sharing and storage resources using gCube; Hans Pfeiffenberger, the International Polar Year, will examine data sharing policies; Flavia Donno, EGEE. looked at the promotion of open standards for DR Infrastructures with case study examples and challenges.

A special roundtable concluded the day. Chaired by Flavia Donno, EGEE, the session reviewed the findings and recommendations for common standards and interoperability.