Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration

1. Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration Facilitating development and operation of high-quality e-Infrastructure solutions of joint Nordic interest

2. 2003 2001 2002 2006 2012

4. Ten more years

5. Mission • Supporting collaboration on e-Infrastructure in the Nordic region • Providing added value to researchers and national funders • Contributing to more cost-efficient development and deployment of e-Infrastructure services • Supporting the national e-Infrastructure providers in terms of • competence building • task sharing • joint operation of services

6. NeIC ‘Owners’

7. NeIC Board NeIC Director NT1 Area Coordinator GEN Area Coordinator ADM Area Coordinator BMS Area Coordinator Provider Forum User Forum User Forum Operations Project Project Project Project Project Project Operations Project Project

8. Bottom-up project initiation Top-down: by research councils or e-infrastructures NeIC Bottom-up: by research communities.

9. Memo Idea Collaborator NeIC XT NO NO NO YES Collaboration agreement Project directive Rev. projectdirective Stakeholder forum YES YES Co-funding partners We have a project!

10. Collaboration model Partner Partner Partner NeIC – onbehalfofthepartnership Service Agreements NeIC EmployerInstitution: Project Personnel EmployerInstitution: Project Manager EmployerInstitution: Project Personnel

11. Project organization Steeringgroup Partners, NeIC chairing Reference group Researchers Project manager Reference group National providers Project team

13. Bio- and Medical Sciences BMS Area established by NeIC Board • In response to Letters of Interest from Nordic research communities • Project on Sensitive BMS Data – Tryggve • In response to “Nordic” ELIXIR, BBMRI, Eurobioimaging communities • strongly connected to ELIXIR (ESFRI) • Relevant to BBMRI, bio-imaging and others

14. Background: Sharing of BMS data Public Metadata such as %males in study, contact info, tissue types (cf MIABIS). Shareable Anonymized or non-identifiable data. Must conform to signed terms of use. Non-shareable Non-anonymized or directly identifiable data; gene sequences, images of faces, keys connecting e.g. “donor001” to the real identities of people. In reality, sharing is often done by enlarging the project team

15. Background: Current practice for sharing sensitive data • Discover data, and track legal custodianship • Do legal work to conform to terms of use • Send contracts around for signature • Save data on encrypted CD • Send CD and encryption key separately • Store CD in safe, in locked room, only signed parties have access • Work with data in environment that meets these standards Mistakes are possible, but illegal: • Saving data to USB stick • Working with data on laptop • …

16. NeIC BMS project on sensitive BMS data - Tryggve Aims for Tryggve • Change current practice for sharing sensitive data, give scientists more time for science • Create environment where it is easier not to break the law • Ensure that only authorizedpeople can use data Aims are not • To change legal framework • To change who gets to use data

17. High performance computing - Cognitus In response to NeIC Board • Coordinating evaluation of • Nordic HPC project (Iceland facility) • Use of PRACE • Follow up through science case for Nordic collaboration on HPC • What are the needs of research communities • How do needs translate into technical requirements? • What national-Nordic-international ecosystem can cater for needs?

18. Nordic Cloud for research In response to national e-Infrastructure providers • Creating a Nordic federated cloud service driven by need of Nordic researchers • Computing and data management on any national cloud resource • Common trusted access infrastructure (KALMAR2) • Sharing knowledge and technology on cloud management • Sharing user experiences for service improvement • Sharing data - enabling new research and avoiding data lost • Infrastructure for sharing – transparency of accounting, billing, funding

19. Data services - B2Share Nordic In response to: national e-Infrastructure providers • B2Share: European data service (EUDAT) • Long-term store and share, persistent identifiers • Customizing B2Share for Nordic communities • BBMRI • EISCAT • ICOS - Integrated CarbonObservation System • CLSi – Computational Life Science initiative (UoOslo) • INCF – International Neuroinformatics Initiative • NRM – Naturhistoriskariksmuseet • Project ends 2014

20. Interest from Nordic researchcommunities • Letters ofInterestreceived 15. May, 2014 • Physics • Climatescience • Language science • Biosciences • Archeology • New strategic areas • NeIC 2016-20 • Open door: National e-Infrastructureproviders & affiliates

21. In Conclusion • Small national silos of e-infrastructuresare • expensive • non-sustainable • non-interoperable • This claim holds for both Nordics and Baltics • Untappedpotential for e-Infrastructurecollaboration • NeIC@Nordenprovides a framework for facilitatingcollaboration

23. Software for Scientific Applications - ARC • NorduGrid consortium • Related, but not NeIC • Nordics, Baltics and beyond • A Nordic success story, initiated by NCM funds • Increasing uptake in high-energy physics • Sustainability for multi-national scientific software? • This is also infrastructure…

24. Evaluatingthe Nordic useof PRACE • Commissioned by the NeIC Board • Coordinated by NeIC • Mandated to internationalexpertcommittee

25. Evaluation highlights • Nordic researchgroups have beenverysuccessful in PRACE • Transparency is an issue • Nordic needs~25% of a PRACE Tier-0 system

26. Nordic Cloud • Sharing knowledge and setting best practices on management of cloud services • Creating a Nordic federated cloud service driven by the need of the Nordic researchers

27. Project goals • Enable the Nordic researchers to compute and manage data on any Nordic Cloud resource • Enable easy access through the KALMAR2 federated trust service • Share technologies to improve quality and security of cloud services • Share user experiences on a Nordic level to improve quality and to increase the available set of services • Share cloud administrative work – improve the service availability to the users • Enable data sharing (enabling new research) and – increase overall availability and security of data (avoiding data loss) • Create a resource sharing solution to simplify the usage and sharing of Nordic Cloud resources • Enable billing and accounting within the Nordic Cloud – to create a fair sharing of resources and funding. This will give better alignment with external research funding.

28. Expected benefit • Easier collaboration for researchers • Analysis can be done where the data is • Smoothing peaks and valleys between resource demand and capacity in the countries • Reduces the work needed in each country • Improves security and broadens the possibility for development • Supports multinational research programs by making it easier to use and fund services provided by several national resource centers • Simplifies compensation of possible resource usage imbalances between countries for NeIC. In addition, the Nordic Cloud • Marketplace enables projects with external users (industry and non-Nordic users) • Co-ordination and interface point towards European cloud initiatives

29. NeIC Budget 2014 (kNOK)