EGEE'09: Uniting our strengths to realise the sustainable European grid

Over the last six years Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) has grown to become the world's largest multi-disciplinary grid infrastructure, with tens of thousands of users. In Barcelona this month the flagship EC-funded project meets for its final annual conference. Next year will see the inauguration of EGEE's successor, the European Grid Initiative (EGI), and this pivotal gathering of the grid community will allow for reflection on the successes of the project, as well as marking a major step forward on the path towards a nationally-focused sustainable grid infrastructure, to benefit all European researchers for years to come. The transition from EGEE to EGI represents a welcome move from short-term project funding to sustained support on a national and international level, which will enable users to continue using grid infrastructures – now and in the future.

Successes have been numerous and EGEE already caters for a multitude of disciplines. This final annual conference is an opportunity for the user communities to showcase their work and achievements, and demonstrate the power of grid technology. There will be live demonstrations from diverse scientific research fields, including many from medical research - notably neuGrid, studying degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, RadioTherapy Grid optimising the use of radiotherapy in cancer treatment and EUAsiaGrid helping research into monitoring future flu pandemics.

While the medical community has benefited greatly it is not the only one to increasingly rely on grids. The computing power and data storage offered by EGEE has allowed scientists to think big - from modelling weather using the grid with WRF4G, predicting the distribution of marine life with AquaMaps, to EUAsiaGrid’s software helping authorities to cope in the aftermath of an earthquake. The breadth and quality of scientific research supported by EGEE is a testament to the versatility of computing grids.

It is this versatility that has attracted industry. EGEE has worked with the business community since the early days of grids. Each year, the dedicated business track increases the collaboration between EGEE and industry. This year is no different, demonstrating the evolution of grid computing by highlighting not only key areas such as cloud computing and service level agreements, but also unveiling prime examples of technology transfer from science and academia to commercialisation.

With cloud computing generating increasing excitement in the business community, EGEE is working to integrate the two services. Two sessions at EGEE’09 will present a range of projects working on grids and clouds, such as StratusLab which is bringing grids and clouds together to create benefits for both science and industry.

As in previous years, the conference has attracted major grid computing figures from around the world as keynote speakers, including locally-based speaker Gonzalo Merino from PIC, who is in charge of Spain’s Tier-1 data centre for the Large Hadron Collider, Jennifer Schopf, from the National Science Foundation’s Office of CyberInfrastructure in the US and Kostas Glinos, who leads the Géant & e-Infrastructures Unit of the Directorate General for Information Society and Media at the European Commission. EGEE’09 will also be a key milestone in the preparations of pan-European projects defined within the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), presented at the conference by Professor John Wood, chair of the European Research Area Board and former Chair of ESFRI.