e-Science and Global Grids in the Information Society: The Role of an EU e-IRG?

1. e-Science and Global Grids in the Information Society:The Role of an EU e-IRG? Tony Hey Director of the UK e-Science Core Programme tony.hey@epsrc.ac.uk

2. A Definition of e-Science ‘e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science, and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it.’ John Taylor Director General of Research Councils Office of Science and Technology • Purpose of e-Science initiative is to allow scientists to do faster, different, better research

3. Licklider’s Vision of the Grid “Lick had this concept of the intergalactic network which he believed was everybody could use computers anywhere and get at data anywhere in the world. He didn’t envision the number of computers we have today by any means, but he had the same concept – all of the stuff linked together throughout the world, that you can use a remote computer, get data from a remote computer, or use lots of computers in your job. The vision was really Lick’s originally.” Larry Roberts – Principal Architect of the ARPANET

4. The Integrative Biology Project • £2.3M Project involving the University of Oxford (and others) in the UK and the University of Auckland in New Zealand • Modelling electrical behaviour of heart cells developed by Denis Noble’s team in Oxford • Couple with mechanical model of beating heart developed in Auckland • Information on influence of genetic defects on electrocardiograms

5. Some thoughts from a UK Perspective • eInfrastructure must support genuine needs of users/applications • To support ‘routine’ collaboration between institutions in different countries need set of robust middleware services and agreed‘policies’ • Pan-European Authentication and Authorization services but not so clear about Accounting • Need to work with NRENS CERTs about security implications of middleware services

6. CERN's Users in the World Europe: 267 institutes, 4603 usersElsewhere: 208 institutes, 1632 users

7. Powering the Virtual Universehttp://www.astrogrid.ac.uk(Edinburgh, Belfast, Cambridge, Leicester, London, Manchester, RAL) Multi-wavelength showing the jet in M87: from top to bottom – Chandra X-ray, HST optical, Gemini mid-IR, VLA radio. AstroGrid will provide advanced, Grid based, federation and data mining tools to facilitate better and faster scientific output. Picture credits: “NASA / Chandra X-ray Observatory / Herman Marshall (MIT)”, “NASA/HST/Eric Perlman (UMBC), “Gemini Observatory/OSCIR”, “VLA/NSF/Eric Perlman (UMBC)/Fang Zhou, Biretta (STScI)/F Owen (NRA)” p7 Printed: 09/09/2014

8. Purpose of EU eInfrastructure? • Some clear sets of users with their own resources who wish to collaborate • Particle physicists, Astronomers • Probably several other important user communities • Healthcare, Climate/EO, …. • Show the way for Inter-Enterprise collaboration for industry • Greek Presidency ERIA

9. eInfrastructure Common Fabric Generic services Connect Provide Exchange Group A Resources Private Resources Group B Private Resources

10. Purpose of eIRG? • Understand problems and barriers that make intra-EU research collaborations difficult • Formulate guidelines/policies for EU collaboration with the international community • Bring together national best practice with EU projects and initiatives • Must work closely with other relevant bodies such as the NRENs and ESFRI