Now the main thrust of eSI’s work is changing to focus on longer-term and research centred topics. This is achieved by running themes that develop a topic over a period of six months to a year, through a series of workshops and meetings at eSI and elsewhere. The choice of themes and theme leaders is competitive, and will be recommended to the Director by the Science Advisory Board. We are already running two themes under this regime and have two more in the pipeline.

There will remain a need for a rapid response to community issues, which will continue to be met by eSI with guidance from the Programme Committee.