SCIENCE

The EDGI (European Desktop Grid Initiative) project is looking for four subcontractors.

• Two subcontractors should bring in new application user communities.
• Two subcontractors as infrastructure providers.

The two infrastructure subcontractors are expected to extend the resources the original partners bring into the EDGI infrastructure.

These subcontractors can bring the following type of resources:

1. Academic cloud.
2. Local desktop grid (e.g., university level desktop grid) that is ready to support the service grid applications ported by EDGeS and will be ported by EDGI.
3. Existing public desktop grid that is ready to support the service grid applications ported by EDGeS or that will be ported by EDGI.

The selection criteria include the size of the resource the subcontractor will bring into the infrastructure.

The two application user communities subcontractors are expected to extend the number of ported applications to the EDGI infrastructure with new application domains. The selection criteria include the size of the community using the application domain.

For all the four subcontractors a common task is to contribute to the dissemination of the EDGI technology through their user communities.

The EDGI project

The goal of the EDGI project is to extend the EDGeS (Enabling Desktop Grids for eScience) with scientific clouds, and extension to Unicore and KnowArc based grids. The EDGeS infrastructure already connected gLite based Service Grids to Desktop Grids using BOINC, XtremWeb or OurGrid Desktop Grid technology. There is already a portfolio of two dozen scientific applications that have been ported to this infrastructure.

We expect that unlocking vast numbers of grid computing resources is of interest to new scientific user communities and that linking an existing computational infrastructure to the European e-Infrastructure is of interest, because the new opportunities it offers to users of these infrastructure.. The EDGI project started on the 1st of June 2010.

As part of the EDGI project we issue a call for subcontractors to get in touch with potential new user communities and infrastructure providers.

What do we expect?

We are looking for organisations that represent a user group that has a real computing need that can potentially be fulfilled by a large-scale grid and for existing infrastructures that want to serve a large user community better by connecting to the EDGI infrastructure.
Also organisations that have an application with a potentially large impact are considered.

Our call is not about grid research, i.e., we are not looking for basic grid algorithms or basic application development, nor are we looking to extend the software foundations of grids. The application must be proven and mature in itself, the only need should be porting it to the EDGI Grid. The infrastructure of a new infrastructure provider must already exist. We are not looking for organisations either that have an application that they only use themselves or for isolated, very small infrastructures. There must be a (potentially) large user community requiring this application, or needing the infrastructure preferably a European wide user community.

We expect that the organisation that submits a response to this call has got full control or access to the application or the infrastructure, that is has the technical capability and the commitment to actively participate in making the application grid enabled or connecting the infrastructure. We expect that at the end of the EDGI project the application is fully operational on the grid, benefiting users and the connected infrastructures can exchange jobs automatically.

The successful applicant is also expected to bring into the project at least a matching unfunded effort (more effort will get higher score during the evaluation of the applications). Furthermore subcontractors are expected to participate at least in two project meetings and at one dissemination event.

What we offer

What we (the EDGI project) offer is analysis of the application, assistance in making it grid-enabled, testing it on our grid and later porting it onto the production EDGI Grid, and for infrastructures, analysis of the connection possibilities through the EDGeS 3G Bridge, assistance in writing or configuring a connector, and testing of a workflow on the combined infrastructure. In addition we offer a financial contribution of 20.000 Euro. Successful applicants will be invited to join the EDGI project as subcontractors, following the rules laid out by the European Commission for subcontracts in Framework 7 projects.

This call offers a unique opportunity to applicants to be able in the near future to supply users, or user communities with a very large amount of computational resources and have an application that is grid-enabled, i.e., can run on almost any grid in the world. If you connect your infrastructure it becomes part of the European infrastructure for eScience. Being part of the EDGI consortium also gives you access to a number of Europe's leading grid experts and provides additional visibility for you and your user community.

Even if you are not selected as application user community subcontractor -- we can only select two -- you still can get benefit of collaborating with EDGI in porting your application(s) since in this case EDGI will port your application(s) to the EDGI infrastructure requiring only minimal consultancy from your side. The same is true for infrastructure providers.

This call is open both to academic organisations that we expect to represent a large European wide user community, and to industrial organisations that we expect to be part of a broad user community that includes at least several user companies. In both cases we expect the potential impact of applying grid/cloud technology is very high.

The annex to the printed version of this call is describing the formal application and the open selection procedure and the application form to be filled out. You can also find this on the EDGI project website.