1. Introduction to GISELA, CHAIN and EPIKH projects
Diego Scardaci (INFN – Catania)
Joint CHAIN/GISELA/EPIKH School for Application Porting to Science Gateways
18-26 June 2012
Mexico City (Mexico)

2. GISELA as Resource Infrastructure Provider
General
is much experienced in Grid computing
has a powerful Infrastructure
complies with EGI policies & recommendations
Specificity
Sustainability approach
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico) 2 2

3. The GISELA Consortium 15 Countries (11 in Latin America)
19 Partners (14 in Latin America)
12 Third Parties (9 in Latin America)
CNRS 3rd Parties
CPPM
IPGP
UNAM 3rd Parties
CICESE
ITESM
IPN-CIC
UNISON
UPORTO 3rd Party
Uminho
UNIANDES 3rd Parties
UFRO
UTFSM
UNIANDES Third Parties
UIS
PUJ
UFRJ 3rd Party
CEFET-RJ
REUNA 3rd Parties
UFRO
UTFSM
UFRJ Third Party
CEFET-RJ
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico) 3 3 3

4. Long record in e-Science support
Fruit of 6-7 year experience of successful e-Science EU- LA Collaboration, through EU funded projects (EELA, EELA-2, GISELA)
Present in almost all LA countries
Most encompassing e-Infrastructure for scientific collaborations between Latin America and Europe
Sound long-term sustainability approach rooted on CLARA, NRENs
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico) 4 4 4

5. Year 1 Year 2 Pledge Powerful e-Infrastructure in Latin America
“Extra” resources for the prod.vo.eu-eela.eu VO
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico) 5

6. Sustainability approach
GISELA is promoting tight integration of Network and Grid services over the LA continent, under the auspices of CLARA & LA NRENs.
Sustainability approach
CLARA is developing, in addition to its current Network Services, new Advanced Computing Services (extension of GISELA Services)
By the e.o. GISELA, CLARA & NRENs take over the Operation of the e-Infrastructure and the Support of the Virtual Research Communities.
The instrument will be a Business Plan
Based on GISELA organization / competence and best practices
Adapted to the realities and specificities of LA countries.
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

7. Platform for all kinds of Applications / VRCs
EELA-2 ended up supporting 61 Applications from 78 Institutions
VRCs
LA User Communities, typically 1-2 Institution group(s), alone or collaborating with a few Institutions.
A few large VRCs from Life Sciences (e.g. WeNMR, Biomed), Earth Sciences (WRF4G, Seismic simulations) and HEP (Auger, LHC expts)
More than 200 scientific contacts in LA e.g. CLARA surveyed communities
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico) 7

8. The VRC-driven GISELA Science Gateway
Reason: hide / simplify the burden of interacting with the e-Infrastructure (AA mechanism, user interface, scripts..), with the clear intention to attract those potential users “frightened” by the lack of user-friendliness of the DCI interface
The GISELA SG is a Web site which allows users to fully exploit the e-Infrastructure capabilities through a normal Web browser
Access from the Science Gateway using a pair username/password (provided by an Identity Federation)
Application submission simply filling a Web form.
Grid middleware independence
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

9. GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting - 18-26 June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

10. Regional Grid infrastructures
CNGrid
NKN & Garuda
EUAsiaGrid
SAGrid & SANREN
GISELA
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

11. CHAIN: global coverage
Coordination & Harmonisation of Advanced eINfrastructures
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

12. Project objectives
Define a strategy and a model for external collaboration, in close collaboration with EGI.eu which will enable operational and organisation interfacing of EGI and external eInfrastructures
Validate this model, as a proof-of-principle, by supporting the extension and consolidation of worldwide Virtual Research Communities
Explore and propose concrete steps forward towards the coordination with other projects and initiatives (e.g. EGI.eu, EUMEDGRID-Support, EUIndiaGrid2, LinkSCEEM2, NKN & Garuda, etc.)
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

13. Project information
Grant Agreement for a total EC contribution of 1.1 M€
Total cost: about 1.9 M€
Start Date: 1st December Duration 24 Months
Partners:
INFN (Italy - Coordinator)
CESNET (Czech Rep.)
CIEMAT (Spain)
GRNET (Greece)
IHEP (China)
UBUNTUNET (Africa)
CLARA (Latin America)
PSA (India)
ASREN (Med./Middle East/Gulf) Since 1 August 2011
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

14. Project strategic vision
A world-wide Distributed Computing Infrastructure can address big scientific challenges that are not manageable with departmental computing systems
Virtual Research Communities can transparently access different kind of resources: scientific applications and tools, Data Repositories, down to CPUs and Disks. The vision is that of VRCs sharing resources ubiquitously across different administrative domains
Regional e-Infrastructures should be made interoperable among each other. CHAIN is committed to promote and validate a proof-of-concept that addresses this
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

15. Knowledge base www.chain-project/knowledge-base
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

16. GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting - 18-26 June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

17. The EPIKH Project (www.epikh.eu)
“Exchange Programme to advance e-Infrastructure Know-How” (EPIKH)
EU FP7- Marie Curie Actions – People - International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES)
Consortium “numbers”:
23 partners;
18 countries;
4 continents (Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe);
115 persons involved;
>650 researcher-months;
>500 secondments;
Duration: March, 1, 2009 – February, 28, 2013 (48 months)
EC contribution: 1,188,000 €
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

18. The EPIKH Partners Chinese Partner
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

19. The EPIKH goals Strategic aims: Specific actions:
Reinforce the impact of e-Infrastructures in scientific research defining and delivering stimulating programme of educational events, including Grid Schools and High Performance Computing courses;
Broaden the engagement in e-Science activities and collaborations both geographically and across disciplines.
Specific actions:
Spreading the knowledge about the “Grid Paradigm” to all potential users: both system administrators and application developers through an extensive training programme;
Easing the access of the trained people to the e-Infrastructures existing in the areas of action of the project;
Fostering the establishment of scientific collaborations among the countries/continents involved in the project.
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

20. EPIKH secondments’ programme
1st Phase:
Non-EU → EU
(selected)
Res. Programs
2nd Phase:
EU → Non-EU
Grid Schools
(with 1st phase tutors)
Workshops
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)

21. Thanks for your attention
GISELA/CHAIN/EPIKH School for Application Porting June 2012 – Mexico City (Mexico)