SLICES-RI Pre-Operation Methodology and Services

SLICES-RI is being developed as a scientific instrument, following established methodologies and best practices from the scientific community. This approach is increasingly essential to address the accelerating pace of data-driven research, which continuously generates a deluge of publications. The core mission of a scientific instrument is to provide a standardized and trusted reference, enabling direct performance comparisons of algorithms and ensuring reproducibility — thereby simplifying and strengthening the peer review process. To meet these goals, SLICES-RI adopts an intent-based design and generates tailored Blueprints for specific scientific questions. While it does not aim to be exhaustive, this approach significantly reduces the complexity involved in designing and executing experiments. In this presentation, we share the current deployment status of SLICES-RI as it entered its pre-operational phase. We illustrate its capabilities through the Post-5G and Federated Learning Blueprints. Additionally, we highlight MRS/DMI, a key feature of SLICES-RI, which offers an advanced data management framework aligned with the FAIR principles and fully integrated into the experimental workflow.