NA3 Activity

The objective of this activity is to develop a framework for Grid applications to enable:

• The validation and prospects for efficient usage of Grid infrastructure developed in BalticGrid-II and inherited from BalticGrid project,
• The validation and testing of BalticGrid-II Grid infrastructure to fit the Baltic States and Belarus research ecosystem,
• The methodology of identification of applications for BalticGrid-II infrastructure,
• The way for collaboration of applications in BalticGrid-II infrastructure, as well as in the infrastructure of European Grid ecosystem.
  

 
The objectives will be achieved by:

• Identifying interdisciplinary and collaborative applications that are conjunctive among scientists of Baltic States and Belarus and which will validate an extended and reinforced e-infrastructure in the Baltic region and Belarus, fully interoperable with the pan-European e-Infrastructures established by EGEE and EGEE associated projects,
• Addressing the specific needs of scientific communities of Baltic States and Belarus which will strengthen the role of NGIs for Grid computing and Grid technology,
• Establishing Grid-based services for research areas, like linguistics or Baltic Sea operational models, for the effective utilization of Grid resources enabling them to share large quantities of data and computing results,
• Attracting new users of the Grid, which enable application sharing and common application solution dissemination among users.
  

 
The applications chosen for identification and collaboration correspond to research projects and programs, which:

• are of a great importance for Baltic States and Belarus because of they represent national research programs or projects (application topics suggested below are from research programs, funded at national or international level)
• require computing, computing resources, facilities, e-services, collaboration tools and disseminations capabilities,
• receive benefits from the Grid infrastructure, designed and developed for them in the BalticGrid-II project.
  

 
The application identification and collaboration procedures for BalticGrid-II will be organized by:

• establishing and structuring links of different research groups within Baltic States and Belarus
• specifying the role of Grid computing technology in e-Infrastructure in Baltic States and Belarus
• supporting the cooperation of Grid users of Baltic States and Belarus with other Grids (via SIGs, VOs, other collaboration tools)
  

 
The application identification and collaboration will be addressed through Grid-based procedures and organisational efforts to ensure the involvement of scientists and other researchers in the region. This will be also addressed by implementing and supporting application runs within specific scientific areas, by exploiting Special Interests Group portal (developed in the BalticGrid project), Gridcom software (initiated in the BalticGrid project and will be further developed in BalticGrid-II JRA) and use of suitable testbeds:

• identification through preparing and developing of cluster testbeds for applications,
• identification through SIG portals or Gridcom software, for groups of users,
• arrangement of seminars and workshops involving all interested users, to strengthen collaboration among existing and newly welcomed users,
• analysis of results of tests and seminars, to provide feedback to the community,
• reporting by the help of analytical summaries and suggestions for further development of the Grid infrastructure for applications.
  

 
The identification and collaboration efforts will be put into identifying common needs between scientific areas leading to plans on how to federate approaches. The project will link together various research groups of common scientific interests within the Baltic States and Belarus and further add a pan-European dimension to their scientific activities. Particularly, the project will investigate and give the researchers a way to organize virtual research laboratories. The Grid technology will be evaluated for the capability to intensify international scientific activities and to strengthen cross-border collaboration within Europe.