The EPIKH and CHAIN projects

1. The EPIKH and CHAIN projects Roberto Barbera (roberto.barbera@ct.infn.it) University of Catania & INFN & COMETA - Italy EPIKH Workshop Stellenbosch (South Africa), 10.06.2011

2. Outline • Background and concepts; • The EPIKH project; • The CHAIN project; • Summary and conclusions.

3. The world «divides» (1/2)

4. The world «divides» (2/2) maps.maplecroft.com

5. The Global Network (1/2)

6. The Global Network (2/2)

7. The Global Grid DEISA/ PRACE BalticGrid Teragrid/XD EGEE/EGI EUChinaGrid OSG SEE-Grid NAREGI EUMEDGRID EU-IndiaGrid EUAsiaGrid EELA/GISELA SAGrid

8. e-Infrastructure at «world» scale >340 sites in 56 countries ~300,000 CPU cores >250 million GB of storage ~28 million jobs/month >12,000 users in >200 VOs

9. The Triangle of Knowledge t-Infrastructure t-Infrastructure Research & Development e-Infrastructure Education & Training Innovation Building e-Infrastructures is a waste if we don’t “build”, at the same time, their users. Along with e-Infrastructures, t-Infrastructures and training programmes are also needed.

10. The EPIKH Project (www.epikh.eu) • “Exchange Programme to advance e-Infrastructure Know-How” (EPIKH) • EU FP7- Marie Curie Actions – People-International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) • Consortium “numbers”: • 23 partners; • 18 countries; • 4 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America); • 115 persons involved; • >650 researcher-months; • >500 secondments; • Duration: March, 1, 2009 – February, 28, 2013 (48 months) • EC contribution: 1,188,000 €

11. The EPIKH Partners(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219&Itemid=228)

12. The EPIKH goals • Strategic aims: • Reinforce the impact of e-Infrastructures in scientific research defining and delivering stimulating programme of educational events, including Grid Schools and High Performance Computing courses; • Broaden the engagement in e-Science activities and collaborations both geographically and across disciplines. • Specific actions: • Spreading the knowledge about the “Grid Paradigm” to all potential users: both system administrators and application developers through an extensive training programme; • Easing the access of the trained people to the e-Infrastructures existing in the areas of action of the project; • Fostering the establishment of scientific collaborations among the countries/continents involved in the project.

13. EPIKH on the web www.epikh.eu wiki.epikh.eu documents.epikh.eu agenda.epikh.eu

14. EPIKH secondments’ programme 1st Phase: Non-EU → EU (selected) Res. Programs 2nd Phase: EU → Non-EU Grid Schools (with 1st phase tutors) Final Workshops

15. Grant opportunities(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=108) The call for grants is open !

16. 69 grant requests received so far;58 selected Trainer List of CVs and profiles Trainee

17. EPIKH secondments done so far(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=208&Itemid=222)

18. EPIKH events in the world(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=216&Itemid=225)

19. EPIKH Schools (1/2) 1-week tutorials for site administrators (with remote installations) More than 12 new Grid sites already installed in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 1 Site installed here at BUAA during the school.

20. Training statistics(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=221&Itemid=229) >4 participant∙years of training already done! Feedback always >4.5/6 Brussels, Workshop on IRSES and Marie Curie Actions, 14.12.2010

21. Applications’ “virtuous cycle” of EPIKH Training events (schools) Dissemination (workshops) “Gridification” Deployment on large Infrastructures and inclusion in the portfolio of demonstrative applications

22. Call for applications(http://applications.epikh.eu/survey/)

23. EPIKH applications’ lifecycle

24. MoUs with other projects Other signed also with CHAIN, DC-NET and INDICATE projects EUMEDGRID-Support EU-IndiaGrid2 GISELA DEGISCO

25. List of already “gridified” applications(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201&Itemid=215) Does not include the applications of the school Total = 51

26. Example of application description Cairo, EPIKH Workshop, 04.11.2010 Cairo, EPIKH Workshop, 04.11.2010

27. Application statistics(http://wiki.epikh.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=203&Itemid=220)

28. Intermediate conclusions • e-Infrastructures are: • changing the way to do scientific research; • allow to tackle unprecedented challenging multi-disciplinary problems; • are considered key enablers of the progress of a country; • EPIKH can represent for young brilliant scientists and technologists a unique occasion to learn and adopt the Grid paradigm through stimulating research programs; • EPIKH can offer free technical support for anyone willing to organize local training events on Grid computing: • It can be undergraduate courses, M.Sc. courses, Ph.D. curricula, tutorials, Grid Schools, etc.; • Thanks to EPIKH, large projects → NGIs → campuses can easily setup Grid infrastructures and deploy/run on them scientific applications; • I’m very willing to discuss with you possible ways of further collaboration.

29. Globalisation of Grid Infrastructures DEISA/ PRACE BalticGrid Teragrid/XD EGEE/EGI EUChinaGrid OSG SEE-Grid NAREGI EUMEDGRID EU-IndiaGrid EUAsiaGrid EELA/GISELA SAGrid

30. A new project Coordination & HarmonisationofAdvancedeINfrastructures

31. Timing 2009 2010 2011 2012 EGEE III EGI EUAsiaGrid GISELA SEEGRID-SCI EUMEDGRID-Support EELA II EUIndiaGrid2

32. CHAIN project • CHAIN is an EC (260011) funded project • ~ 1.6 M€ • Structured in • WP 1 Project Management • WP 2 Consolidation of existing state of the art • WP 3 Present and emerging needs of trans-continental scientific communities • WP 4 Modelling the cooperation of European e-Infrastructures with non-European ones • WP 5 Dissemination and Outreach

33. CHAIN project • 281.5 PM in 24 Months (started in Dec 1st 2010) • Partners • INFN • CIEMAT • CESNET • UBUNTUNET • CLARA • IHEP • PSA • ASREN • Asia-Pacific consortium

34. Define a strategy and a model for external collaboration, in close collaboration with EGI.eu which will enable operational and organisation interfacing of EGI and external e-Infrastructures Validate this model, as a proof-of-principle, by supporting the extension and consolidation of worldwide VRC Explore and propose concrete steps forward towards the coordination with other projects and initiatives CHAIN objectives

35. WP2 Conduct a state-of-the-art analysis regarding current solutions for European Grid interfacing with Grids in other world regions A questionnaire has been prepared and is On-Line Target people are persons responsible of a NGI or a Regional Grid Infrastructure (2 different surveys) http://survey.chain-project.eu

36. WP3 • To provide (limited) support to the existing and well experienced VRC (LHC, Biomed…) • To provide support for communities interested to widen their activities collaborating with other continents • To discover and attract new scientific communities or merging similar ones operating worldwide.

37. VRC Candidates • We-NMR (http://www.wenmr.eu) • Dr. Alexandre M.J.J Bonvin – Universiteit Utrecht • Structural biology, making use of NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), SAXS (Small Angle X-ray Scattering), computational modelling or other related techniques to study biomolecules

38. VRC Candidates • WRF4G (http://www.meteo.unican.es/es/software/wrf4g) • Dr. Antonio Cofiño – Universidad de Cantabria • Meteorology and other Earth Science related areas willing to enhance their forecasting techniques on Idealized simulations, Regional and global applications, Parameterization and Data assimilation or Forecast and hurricane research • Dissemination within CORDEX project

39. VRC Candidates • jModelTest/ProtTest (http://darwin.uvigo.es/) • Dr. David Posada – Universidad de Vigo • Evolutionary Biology for the statistical selection of best-fit models of nucleotide substitution and amino acid replacement for given set of aligned sequences (molecular systematics, phylogenetics, phylogenomics, molecular evolution and/or bioinformatics) • jModelTest/ProtTest registered users • Modeltest ~ 30.000 • jModelTest ~ 11.000 • Prottest ~ 5.000

40. VRC Candidates • DC-NET / INDICATE (http.//www.dc-net.eu and http://www.indicate-project.eu/) • Dr. Antonella Fresa – Promoter • These initiatives are working on coordinating policy and best practice regarding the use of e-Infrastructures for digital cultural heritage

41. VRC Candidates • DECIDE (http://www.eu-decide.eu) • Dr. Laura Leone – GARR • Design, implement, and validate a GRID-based e-Infrastructure building upon neuGRID and relying on the Pan-European backbone GEANT and the NRENs. Over this e-Infrastructure, a service will be provided for the computer-aided extraction of diagnostic markers for Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia from medical images

42. Study and propose a model for cooperation and interoperation among European and non-European e-Infrastructures Perform an organizational study that will take into account a regional “customisation” applied to a shared model for sustainability WP4

43. Request and collect feedbacks from qualified actors in the field of e-Infrastructures worldwide on the proposed model and produce a final version with a road-map for the follow-up of extensions to the European Grid Infrastructure Brainstorming meetings with EGI.eu were held in Rome (Dec 2010) and Amsterdam (Jan 2011) A Workshop on Interoperations was organised in cooperation with EUIndiaGrid-2 at OGF 31 (April 2011) WP4

44. Disseminate the benefits of e-Infrastructures in the scientific and technical communities, training them and supporting the transition of relevant applications to the new e-Infrastructure paradigm Get the consensus of scientific communities, stake holders, funding agencies, etc. on the usefulness and relevance of these e-Infrastructures for the improvement of their research activities WP5

45. http://www.chain-project.eu

46. CHAIN Knowledge Base • Largest eInfrastructure-related knowledge base • Information dynamically available for about half of the countries of the world • More on this in RiccardoRotondo’spresentation

47. Africa ROC (http://roc.africa-grid.org/)

48. China ROC(http://china-roc.ihep.ac.cn/) • Dedicated instances of GOCDB and Support System will soon be put online; • Customization is in progress.

49. Conclusions • To build stable and sustainable e-Infrastructures has been the main effort of several regional projects • Different levels of development have been achieved, but every e-Infrastructure aims to collaborate with the rest • It is time to produce a coherent, multi-region and multi-path road-map for the sustainability and interoperations of those Regional e-Infrastructures towards EGI and among themselves

50. Thank you very much ! Any questions ?