Professor Geoff Taylor Interim Director, NeCTAR director@nectar.au

1. 2010 CAUDIT Spring Members Meeting Thursday 21 October Professor Geoff Taylor Interim Director, NeCTAR director@nectar.org.au

2. In 2010, the Federal Government announced that the $97M in Super Science funding for electronic collaboration services and data fabric initiatives would be directed through two separate funding agreements: • $47M for the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) project • $50M for the Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) initiative. • This Super Science funding builds on the work previously undertaken by the Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS) under NCRIS Platforms for Collaboration funding, which concludes at 30 June 2011. • The University of Melbourne has been announced as lead agent for NeCTAR • The lead agent for the RDSI project will be announced soon

3. NeCTAR implementation principles • The $47M for NeCTAR comes from the Australian Government’s Super Science scheme. This is funded through the Education Investment Fund (EIF), which is focussed on the creation of infrastructure. • Participants in NeCTAR must endeavour to establish, operate, and provide access to the infrastructure in a way that: • takes into account the long-term strategic requirements of relevant research disciplines • enhances national and international collaboration in research • enhances research capability for relevant disciplines • provides for merit-based access to the facilities in accordance with the norms and expectations of the research community • has a strong emphasis on service provision to the research community • has a strong emphasis on effective use of data and compute resources.

4. NeCTAR objectives • NeCTAR’s primary objective is to enhance research collaboration and research outcomes. • This will be pursued through: • Provision of ICT infrastructure that creates new information-centric research capabilities, as well as further developing existing expertise • Significantly simplifying the flow of data from instruments to storage and computing facilities for access and analysis in a range of applications • Enabling the development of research workflows based on access to multiple resources. • The intention is to support the so-called ‘connected researcher’ who, either at the desktop or the benchtop, has access to a full suite of digitally-enabled data, and analytic and modelling resources relevant to their research.

5. NeCTAR objectives • The NeCTAR investment sits within a broader eResearch capability and is aimed at providing the bridge between researchers and eResearch resources. • The nature of the Super Science (EIF) funding requires that the project focus on the creation and development of infrastructure - therefore the emphasis of the program is on development and implementation of tools that enhance research capability.   • Key outcomes of the project will be to: • Deploy research infrastructure and services nationally that are not otherwise available to researchers • Extend the use of the infrastructure and services to a wider cross-section of researchers more quickly than would otherwise occur. • A further key success factor will be the generation of a practical rationale for ongoing investment in this area. Models for sustainability will be pursued as part of the project plan and ongoing implementation.

6. NeCTAR project components The NeCTAR project objectives will be delivered through four project components: eResearch Tools. These tools will support the continuing development of research tools and services and their integration with other NCRIS- and Super Science-funded infrastructure. Virtual Laboratories. Exemplar problem-oriented Virtual Laboratories will be created from sensor, instrument, compute, data and visualisation resources. Research Cloud. A set of virtualised research applications that operate in a secure and shared environment, connected to major instruments, compute and data nodes. National Servers. These will provide the core functions to enable advanced information services, enhanced collaboration and the improved interoperation of research infrastructure. Components 1 and 2 will be problem- or discipline-specific, requiring the development of infrastructure directly relevant to specific research needs. Components 3 and 4 are intended to be multi-purpose and support a wide range of end-user needs.

7. Planning and consultation

8. eResearch Tools (RT) program • The RT-program aims to develop and improve selected eResearch tools and services to:  • enhance their capabilities including improved remote access, real-time interaction, or workflow effectiveness • enhance their support for collaborative work • increase their functionality particularly via access to other tools and services. • Each RT activity would be undertaken as a Sub-Project managed by a Sub-Contractor. It is expected that:  • each Sub-Project would be executed over a 12 to 24 month period • each Sub-Project would be provided with between $500,000 and $1 million as a contribution towards infrastructure development and commissioning • Sub-Project participants would agree to maintain and operate relevant software, middleware and hardware infrastructure at least through to the operational end of NeCTAR (June 2014) • the NeCTAR Sub-Project funding contribution would be no more than 50% of total costs.

9. Virtual Laboratories (VL) program • The VL-Program will construct a small number of leading research collaboration environments that demonstrate the research benefits of more broadly integrated research resources.  • The program will:  • develop criteria for selection of investments with the research community • identify priority opportunities and associated co-investors through an open EOI process • develop, install and commission the necessary purpose-specific integrated infrastructure for each virtual laboratory, including any necessary multi-institutional ICT deployment or National Server components. • A priority for the VL-Program will be to enhance the Super Science investments in networking, supercomputing, data management, and the storage and collaboration infrastructure, as well as other significant research support capabilities. 

10. Research Cloud (RC) program • The RC-Program will provide access to a range of computing and integration with data storage capabilities for research purposes, the latter of which are expected to come from the national Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) project. • In the context of the national RDSI, the program will investigate opportunities to co-locate cloud capabilities with the data storage capabilities, where such a need is identified. • Co-location may involve the addition of relevant capabilities to selected nodes in the RDSI, including the:  • installation of substantial (virtualised) server support capabilities located at one or more national data stores for the use of the Project, including any necessary specialised storage and interconnects required • provisioning of middleware to support on-demand scalable access to virtualised server, cluster and storage capabilities, and the user management of such capabilities, either by licence or as a service.

11. National Servers (NS) program • The NS-Program will provide server support for essential eResearch servers to appropriate standards of reliability.   • Servers may include:  • servers to publish data, such as OpenDAP, THREDDS, GEONET, and AVO  • specific back-end servers, such as those required to support a national file system, centralised grid services, AAF functionality, and video mixing servers for desktop video conferencing • central servers required by Virtual Laboratories and the online collaborative interaction of tools in the Research Cloud. • Example activities under the NS Program may include information services such as the ANDS (Australian National Data Service) utilities, registries for the ALA (Atlas of Living Australia), or packaging of the underlying storage capacity as a national drop box service.

12. Interaction with other eResearch initiatives • RDSI • The RDSI initiative will provide data storage infrastructure to enhance regional data centre development and support retention and integration of nationally significant data assets into the national collaboration and data fabric • The Final NeCTAR Project Plan will take the activities of this initiative into account in determining the details of the NeCTAR infrastructure arrangements • ARCS • The NCRIS funding for ARCS concludes on 30 June 2011. • A number of important tools and services have been developed by ARCS to meet the functional requirements of the research community. NeCTAR has the option to continue these services, to further develop them, or to decide not to take them up, depending upon the demand from the sector. • This will be determined through the consultation process and will be at the discretion of the NeCTAR Project Board, assuming there is also sufficient compatibility with the mission and framework of the NeCTAR project

13. More information about the townhall meetings, including formal advice of venue and RSVP details, will be released to the sector shortly. To register your early interest in the townhall events, please email admin@nectar.org.au, indicating which event you would plan to attend.

14. For more information about NeCTAR, please visit the interim website: www.nectar.org.au Alternatively, please contact me at: director@nectar.org.au