RELATED PROJECTS


Title: SEE-GRID e-Infrastructure for regional e-Science (SEE-GRID-SCI)

Period: 2008-2010

Funding Body: European Commission FP7

Abstract:
e-Infrastructure in Europe has reached a mature state where the GÉANT network forms a communications backbone on top of which a distributed computing infrastructure – the Grid – provides processing and storage services for e-Science research. The South-East European e-Infrastructure initiatives are committed to ensuring equal participation of the less-resourced countries of the region in European trends. SEEREN initiative has established a regional network and its GÉANT connection and the SEE-GRID initiative the regional Grid. SEE-GRID-SCI will leverage the SEE e-Infrastructure to enable new scientific collaborations among user communities.

SEE-GRID-SCI will stimulate widespread e-Infrastructure uptake by new user groups extending over the region, fostering collaboration and providing advanced capabilities to more researchers, with an emphasis on strategic groups in seismology, meteorology and environmental protection.

The initiative thus aims to have a catalytic and structuring effect on target user communities that currently do not directly benefit from the available e-Infrastructures. In parallel, it will enlarge the regional e-Infrastructure to cater for demands of the communities by increasing the computing and storage resources and involving new partner countries in the region. Finally, SEE-GRID-SCI will help mature and stabilise the National Grid Initiatives in the region, allowing them to join the new era of longer-term sustainable Grid infrastructure in Europe. In this context, SEE-GRID-SCI will aim to attract local political support for materializing the e-Infrastructure vision. 

In longer term, SEE-GRID-SCI aspires to contribute to the stabilisation and development of South-East Europe, by easing the digital divide and stimulating e-Infrastructure development and adoption by new user communities, thus enabling collaborative high-quality research across target scientific fields.



Title: Development of Armenian-Georgian Grid Infrastructure and applications in the fields of high energy physics, astrophysics and quantum physics

Period: 2008-2010

Funding Body: International Science and Technology Center (ISTC)

Abstract:
Grid infrastructures are one of the key enablers for scientific research and for development of Information Society. In order to ensure that the South Caucasus region would not stay behind in this important area, an appropriate regional Grid infrastructure has to be deployed on basis of Armcluster, which would be accessible, at the same quality level, for all scientists and researchers independently of the physical locations of their institutes. In the long run, the ultimate goal is that any information-technology-related resource or service can be accessible for the South Caucasus region researchers via the Internet, in the same way as the World Wide Web is available for everybody today.

The Project will involve a number of strategic multi-disciplinary regional scientific communities / virtual organizations in various fields of physics (high energy physics, astrophysics, quantum physics) and thus further stimulate the use and expansion of the existing infrastructure and its services, and capitalize on the existing infrastructure human network to further strengthen scientific collaboration and cooperation among participating communities. The project will provide the next-generation Grid infrastructure for the South Caucasus region. The primary objective in this context is to expand the current infrastructure, in order to serve the existing and new user communities. The final objective of the project is to further strengthen and widen the regional and national-level human network. The objective is to reach out to as wide as possible range of user communities in Armenia and Georgia, via strong dissemination and training campaign.

The importance of such an infrastructure is dictated by the following factors: (a) large number of the international scientific programs related to EGEE Grid, require powerful computer means; and (b) researches and technological developments exist in the region for which fast data processing and visualization represent an integral part of investigations. Particularly it is planned to realize the following tasks within this project:

  • High Energy Physics
    • The calculation of NNLL QCD corrections for B → Xsγ decay
    • Monte Carlo production for the HERMES
    • Determination of the spin structure of nucleon-nucleon interaction
    • Spin-filtering experiment
  • Astrophysics
    • Development of Armenian-Georgian Virtual Observatory
  • Quantum Physics
    • High performance computer modeling of quantum optical devices and microstructured Nonlinear Materials



Title: European Grid Initiative: Integrated Sustainable Pan-European Infrastructure for Researchers in Europe (EGI-InSPIRE)

Period: 2010-2014

Funding Body: European Commission FP7

Abstract:
Scientific research is no longer conducted within national boundaries and is becoming increasing dependent on the large-scale analysis of data, generated from instruments or computer simulations housed in trans-national facilities, by using e Infrastructure (distributed computing and storage resources linked by high-performance networks).

The 48 month EGI-InSPIRE project will continue the transition to a sustainable pan-European e-Infrastructure started in EGEE-III. It will sustain support for Grids of high-performance and high-throughput computing resources, while seeking to integrate new Distributed Computing Infrastructures (DCIs), i.e. Clouds, SuperComputing, Desktop Grids, etc., as they are required by the European user community. It will establish a central coordinating organisation, EGI.eu, and support the staff throughout Europe necessary to integrate and interoperate individual national Grid infrastructures. EGI.eu will provide a coordinating hub for European DCIs, working to bring existing technologies into a single integrated persistent production infrastructure for researchers within the European Research Area.

EGI-InSPIRE will collect requirements and provide user-support for the current and new (e.g. ESFRI) users. Support will also be given for the current heavy users as they move their critical services and tools from a central support model to ones driven by their own individual communities. The project will define, verify and integrate within the Unified Middleware Distribution, the middleware from external providers needed to access the e-Infrastructure. The operational tools will be extended by the project to support a national operational deployment model, include new DCI technologies in the production infrastructure and the associated accounting information to help define EGI’s future revenue model.



Title: High-Performance Computing Infrastructure for South East Europe’s Research Communities (HP-SEE)

Period: 2010-2013

Funding Body: European Commission FP7

Abstract:
Core European e-Infrastructure for large-scale e-Science research consists of the backbone GÉANT network; distributed storage & computing infrastructure - European Grid Initiative (EGI); and the PRACE initiative providing tier-0 High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure. South-East European e-Infrastructure initiatives aim for equal participation of the less-resourced countries of the region in the European trends. SEEREN initiative established a regional network and the SEE-GRID initiative the regional Grid, with majority of countries now equal partners in GÉANT and EGI. BSI project established the GÉANT link to the Caucasus, active until mid-2010. However, HPC involvement of the region is limited. Only few HPC installations are available, not open to cross-border research; while the less-resourced countries have no mechanism established for interfacing to the pan-European HPC initiatives.

HP-SEE focuses on a number of strategic actions. First, it will link the existing and upcoming HPC facilities in the region in a common infrastructure, and provide operational solutions for it. As a complementary action, the project will establish and maintain the GÉANT link for Caucasus. Second, it will open this HPC infrastructure to a wide range of new user communities, including those of less-resourced countries, fostering collaboration and providing advanced capabilities to researchers, with an emphasis on strategic groups in computational physics, chemistry and life sciences. Finally, it will ensure establishment of national HPC initiatives, and act as a SEE bridge for PRACE. In this context, HP-SEE will aim to attract the local political & financial support for long-term sustainable e-Infrastructure.

HP-SEE aspires to contribute to the stabilisation and development of South-East Europe, by overcoming fragmentation in Europe and stimulating e-Infrastructure development and adoption by new virtual research communities, thus enabling collaborative high-quality research across a spectrum of scientific fields.



Title: Development of Grid Infrastructure and Services to Support Research Communities in Georgia

Period: 2013-2015

Funding Body: Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation

Abstract:
Grid infrastructure is becoming the key enablers for the integration of scientific potential of Georgia in the European Research Area and for the development of Information Society. For the full scale cooperation in large international research projects in the fields of high energy physics, biology, meteorology and climate change, seismology etc. it is essential to have developed Grid facility in the country incorporated in the European Grid Initiative.

The main objectives of proposed project and means for reaching these objectives are following:

  1. To upgrade the existing Grid infrastructure in Georgia by installing new equipment for worker nodes and storage element. The monitoring system based on Nagios software for the failure detection and notification will be also installed at the GE-01-GRENA site. Regular installations of developed software upgrades in the framework of European Commission InSPIRE project will be provided for the site.
  2. To implement full set of services available at the European Grid infrastructure including establishment of Grid Certification Authority and development of Georgian Grid website containing information about existing Grid infrastructure, user support section, scientific problems approached in applications and their development status, etc.
  3. To support Georgian research teams fully explore established new possibilities in their scientific work by providing easy and transparent access to the modern Grid infrastructure and services. This objective will be achieved by the strong campaign of assessment of the new user communities, training and user support activities (including support in modification of applications according to the Grid computing requirements).

The main outcome of the project will be developed Grid infrastructure with implemented services and establishment of strong Grid user community in Georgia. Proposed trainings and user support activities will ensure effective usage of created infrastructure by the Georgian research groups and further stimulate the expansion of the existing e-Infrastructure and services.

Project will be implemented by the scientists and technical staff of the Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Research and Educational Networking Association - GRENA taking into account their experience in Grid computing.