Project acronym: GridCoord

Coordination: Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Informatica, Italy

Project partners:

Department of Communication, Computer & System Sciences, Univ. of Genoa, Italy Universität Stuttgart, HLRS, Germany Queen's University Belfast, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique, France Université de Nice, France Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin, Germany Universiteit van Amsterdam, Institute of Informatics, Faculty of Science, The Netherlands Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, Poland Vinnova, Sweden The University of Southampton, UK

ICT Technological Area: 2.7. Computer Technology/Graphics, Meta Computing, 2.13. Information Technology/Informatics, 5.7. Research Networking, GRID

Sectors of ICT Implementation: 2.4. Software Activities, 6.1. Pharmaceuticals, 9.1. Services in Industrial Areas, 9.2. Professional Service Industries

Project duration: 24 months

Project start: 01/07/2004

EC funding: 0.96 M EUR

Project aim:
Currently several Grid Research initiatives are on-going or planned at national and European Community level. These initiatives propose the development of a rich set of advanced technologies, methodologies and applications, however enhanced co-ordination amongst the funding bodies is required to achieve critical mass, avoid duplication and reduce fragmentation in order to solve the challenges ahead.

In the 2002 – 2006 timeframe, the funding for Grid research and deployment at EU level more than doubled passing from FP5 to FP6 reaching the amount of 275 M€. During the same period, an estimate of the funding for Grid research and deployment by Member and Accession States (UK, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden) is about 300-500 M€.

The totality of these initiatives could provide the EU with the potential to play a world leadership role in Grid technologies and applications. National and EU collaborations have been established with other international players (in the US and Asia-Pacific) and with international standards organisations. However, if Europe wishes to compete with leading global players, it would be sensible to attempt to better coordinate its various, fragmented efforts towards achieving critical mass and the potential for a more visible impact at an international level. Achieving such a coordinated approach will require:

• Co-ordination among the funding authorities in order to maximise the effective use of the considerable resources
• Collaboration amongst the individual researchers; the creation of European excellence and competence centres
• A visionary research agenda

The first objective of the GridCoord project is to strengthen co-operation amongst the funding authorities in order to better co-ordinate the planning of future activities in the field of Grid research, an ERA objective. A second objective is to enhance the already ongoing collaboration among the research actors and users. A third objective is to develop, based on the above, national and EU Programme visions and roadmaps enabling Europe to play a leadership role in Grid technologies and applications.

Contacts and Website:
http://www.gridcoord.org/grid/portal