Special Features:
GridCoord -- COORDINATING EUROPE-WIDE GRID INITIATIVES
By Marco Vanneschi, Dept. of Computer Science, Pisa University
GridCoord is a Special Support Action (SSA) of the Sixth Framework Program of
the European Community. The goal is the coordination of European initiatives
and research activities in Grid computing in order to strengthen cooperation
among the funding agencies planning future activities, to enhance
collaboration between the research and user communities, and to develop
visionary national and EU programs and roadmaps enabling Europe to play a
leadership role in Grid technologies and applications.
There are several Grid research initiatives, ongoing or planned, at the
national and European Community level, aiming at the development of a rich set
of advanced technologies, methodologies and applications. If the challenges
that lie ahead are to be solved, enhanced coordination among the authorities
funding these initiatives is needed in order to achieve critical mass, avoid
duplication and reduce fragmentation of efforts.
From 2002 to 2006, EU funding for Grid research and deployment more than
doubled, reaching 275 million euros in FP6. For the same period, an estimate
of the funding for Grid research and deployment by a number of Member and
Accession States (United Kingdom, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany,
Hungary, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden) is about 300-500 million
euros.
The totality of these initiatives could provide the EU with the potential to
play a leading world role in Grid technologies and applications. National and
EU collaborations have been established with other international players (in
the US and Asian-Pacific area) and with international standards organizations.
However, if Europe wishes to compete with leading global players, it would be
sensible to attempt to better coordinate its various, fragmented efforts in
order to achieve critical mass and the potential for a more visible impact at
an international level. This requires:
- coordination among the funding authorities in order to maximize the
effective use of the considerable existing and potential resources.
- collaboration among individual researchers and the creation of European
excellence and competence centers.
- a visionary research agenda.
The first objective of GridCoord is thus to strengthen co-operation among the
funding authorities in order to better co-ordinate the planning of future
activities in the field of Grid research, an ERA Strategic objective. A second
objective is to enhance already existing collaborations between researchers
and users. Finally, it is our intention to contribute toward the development
of visionary national and EU programs and roadmaps, enabling Europe to play a
leadership role in Grid technologies and applications.
Partners
The project brings together national research program leaders and
representatives from national funding authorities with the aim of ensuring
national commitment to future joint activities. The following institutions are
partners of GridCoord:
- Italy: University of Pisa, Department of Computer Science, and University
of Genova, Department of Communication, Computer and System Science.
- France: Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique
(INRIA), Sophia Antipolis, and University of Nice, Sophia Antipolis.
- United Kingdom: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),
and Queen's University Belfast, School of Computer Science.
- Germany: University of Stuttgart, High Performance Computing Center (HLRS),
and Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fr Informationstechnik (ZIB), Berlin.
- The Netherlands: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Science, Institute of
Informatics.
- Hungary: Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences MTA SZTAKI.
- Spain: Technical University of Madrid, School of Computer Science.
- Poland: Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center.
- Sweden: Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA).
Objectives And Activities
To achieve the first objective -- improved coordination among funding bodies,
policy makers and leaders of Grid initiatives -- the project will:
- develop a comprehensive compendium of national and EU initiatives including
an analysis of strengths, weaknesses and gaps at EU level.
- identify common interests and synergies capable of leading to cooperation
between different groups, collaboration among funding authorities and
eventually the planning of common initiatives to overcome fragmentation, avoid
duplication of efforts and build the necessary critical mass.
- provide a regular forum at which participants from national funding
authorities and leaders of national Grid initiatives can meet at six-monthly
intervals to establish synergy between the different projects and programs.
To achieve the second objective -- enhanced collaboration among researchers
and users of Grid technology -- the project will:
- organize general and specialized workshops.
- promote and organize dissemination/education/training initiatives both for
users and for research centers.
- investigate the status of standardization activities in Grid computing and
devise a strategy for European activities in standardization.
To achieve the third objective -- development of Grid R&D programs and road
maps -- the project will:
- develop a coherent and innovative Grid R&D program vision in Europe taking
into account cohesion, and considering present achievements and the
multinational character of Grid R&D in Europe. This task will address the
strategic research issues identified by the EU Expert Group on Next Generation
Grids (June 2003) and the UK Gap Analysis report (May 2003), which have been
substantially stimulated by several ongoing national and European research
initiatives and/or collaborations at international level.
- develop Grid R&D road maps and implementation strategies on the basis of
the Grid R&D program vision.
The multinational character of Grid research in Europe should be maintained
and developed according to the intrinsic strengths of the different national
programs. This implies the continued development of both individual national
and EU programs for future Grid research initiatives at the same time as
supporting multilateral exchange of experiences and plans to create a more
complementary and coordinated approach toward Grid Research in Europe.
GridCoord is coordinated by the Dipartimento di Informatica, University of
Pisa, Italy: coordinator, Marco Vanneschi; project manager, Roman Tirler.
Link: www.gridcoord.org
Please contact:
Marco Vanneschi
Dept. of Computer Science, Pisa University
Italy Tel: +39 050 2212738 E
e-mail: vannesch@di.unipi.it
This article was originally published in ERCIM News, the official publication
of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (October
2004 issue).
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