The EGEE'07 conference on 1–5 October attracted more than 600 delegates, and it felt like most of them attended Tuesday's workshop on the status of the European Grid Initiative (EGI).
The room was bulging before the session had even started. When Dieter Kranzlmüller of Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, began with an overview of the EGI Design Study (EGI_DS) project, he was speaking to an audience straining to see more.
This first EGI_DS workshop marked a very concrete step towards the realization of the EGI project: an endeavour that has already garnered the support of more than 37 national Grids and that aims to produce a pan-European Grid infrastructure.
The EGI Design Study kicked off on 1 September 2007 and, although yet to be officially approved, it counts on being supported by the European Commission's (EC's) 7th Framework Programme.
"We're aiming to establish the conceptual set-up for a sustainable Grid infrastructure in Europe," said Kranzlmüller. "This will be driven by the EGI_DS project, which we hope will be supported by the EC. We finished our negotiations with the EC on 27 September and are now just waiting for a draft contract."
The 27-month project has a strong emphasis on coordination and sustainability, and will rely heavily on input from the collaborating parties, Kranzlmüller said.
"Many countries have launched or are in the process of launching national Grid initiatives (NGIs)," he said. "EGI aims to coordinate the integration and inter-operation of these NGIs, moving towards a long-term sustainable initiative less dependent upon EU-funded project cycles."
"We will be under considerable time pressure and will need to work together to produce a complete blueprint for the EGI by June 2008," Kranzlmüller told attendees. "Expect a lot of e-mails and a lot of communication. EGI_DS will depend on your feedback to refine the design of the EGI organization, so it can emphasize support to each NGI and each use case."
EGI is scheduled to begin operations in early 2010, providing overlap with EGEE-III.
EGI Design Study in a nutshell
What form will the EGI Design Study take?
• Work package 1: project management (lead: GUP Linz, Austria).
• Work package 2: EGI requirements consolidation (lead: GRNET, Greece).
• Work package 3: EGI functions definition and roadmap (lead: INFN, Italy).
• Work package 4: study of EGI legal and organizational options (lead: CNRS, France).
• Work package 5: establishment of EGI (lead: CERN, Switzerland).
• Work package 6: EGI promotion and links with other initiatives (lead: CSC, Finland).
For more information about the EGI_DS project, please contact the EGI Design Study team at contact@eu-egi.org.
• This article was published online in iSGTW on 3 October.