ARCHIVED: Completed project: Collaborative Research: The Science Gateway Institute (SGW-I) for the Democratization and Acceleration of Science

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Primary UITS contact: Marlon Pierce

Completed: January 11, 2016

Description: As science becomes increasingly digital, it poses exciting challenges and opportunities for researchers. Whether streaming data from sensors, simulating the formation of tornadoes, annotating and sharing tagged audio and video data, or using geographic information systems to anticipate the spread of disease, the frontiers of transformative science are enormous and continue to grow. Many scientists are turning to web portals or science gateways to allow them to analyze, share, and understand large volumes of data more effectively. The existence of science gateways--and the sophisticated cyberinfrastructure (CI) tools and resources behind these accessible web interfaces--can significantly improve the productivity of researchers facing the most difficult challenges. Most importantly, science gateways can democratize access to the cyberinfrastructure that enables cutting-edge science. Now the best minds can tackle today's most challenging science problems, regardless of their affiliation.

Science gateway developers face several challenges. They often work in isolation, even though development can be quite similar across domain areas. They bridge local, campus, national, and sometimes international cyberinfrastructure. They need foundational building blocks so they can focus on higher-level, grand-challenge functionality. Sustainable funding for science gateways can also be difficult to secure, because they span the worlds of research and infrastructure.

For more, see ScienceGateways.org.

Outcome: The project gathered community feedback, forming the foundation of a Science Gateway Institute. The institute is an incubator of sorts for science gateways, vastly increasing chances for long-term success. It provides a forum for developers to share ideas, approaches, and software. It provides expertise--in science gateway building, in technologies that enable grand-challenge research, in open community software development, in virtual organizations, in project management, and in science gateway sustainability. It provides workforce development, training the next generation for careers in this dynamic, cross-disciplinary, and important area.

Milestones and status: The project recently completed a major survey of over 4,000 researchers on their science gateway requirements. We presented a preliminary report at the GCE14 Workshop at Supercomputing 2014 on November 21, 2014.

Comment process: For comments, inquiries, requests, and clarifications, see ScienceGateways.org: Contact Us. For more about events or to join with Science Gateways, see ScienceGateways.org: Engage. To report issues, create a JIRA issue for the team.

Benefits: It is envisioned that the institute will offer several services and resources to support the gateway development community across the entire lifecycle of a gateway. For the project's benefits, see ScienceGateways.org: About and ScienceGateways.org: Resources.

Related information: See ScienceGateways.org.

Client impact: To learn about the impact of science gateways on the science community, see ScienceGateways.org: What Is a Science Gateway?

Project team: See ScienceGateways.org: Staff Directory.

Governance: This project is governed by open source software governance; see Apache Corporate Governance.

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Last modified on 2019-11-19 11:21:58.