NA5 Objectives

The development of the Grid is a global activity. With its decision to make early funding available to the European Grid community, the European Commission has enabled Europe to take its rightful place at this table.

The principal objective of this coordination activity is to allow EGEE to operate in this global development environment and to ensure Europe can work constructively with the major Grid players from around the world.

Specific objectives of this work are to:

• Foster cooperation between EGEE and the global regions currently involved in Grid research and development including (but not limited to) the Asia Pacific region, North America, Russia, and South America.

• Contribute to the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group in Europe, alongside active participation by a selected number of European National Research and Education Networks (GRNET, RED.ES, DFN and GARR), national Grid bodies and governmental authorities with guidance from the EU.

• Act as European counterpart for the US Cyberinfrastructure Initiative being launched.

• Through contributions to the work of a Related Projects Liaison Office, pursue active collaboration with other EU Grid projects and initiatives.

• Play a leading role in standards setting through attendance by members of the various EGEE activities at global standards bodies such as the Open Grid Forum (with active support and resources provided by NA2).

EGEE represents the first European production-quality Grid infrastructure at this scale. Built upon national resources from across the EU and beyond, the need for policy setting in many areas is becoming more and more important. As the flagship Grid infrastructure project in Europe it is important that EGEE takes a leading role in the establishment of Grid policies across the European Research Area. One of the primary channels for this will be contributing to the work of the e-Infrastructures Reflection Group. Members are selected from senior relevant personnel from National Governmental funding bodies and International Organizations, senior relevant personnel from European Infrastructure providers, key international players and senior relevant personnel from the major European and National Grid Initiatives.

The output from this group’s deliberations is a series of e-Infrastructure White Papers and recommendations to the regulatory authorities in the EU member states and in the European Commission.

As the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group gains momentum we expect to extend it to include International policy setting; with an agreed European policy framework in place, this will give Europe a key strength in the global context. Initial e-Infrastructure Working Groups are expected to focus on: Common Access Policies, Resource Sharing, Accounting, Cost Models, Networking, and Security including proper schemas for Certification Authorities.