CHAIN Kick Off Meeting, Rome

Today I’m in the beautiful setting of Rome for the CHAIN project kick off meeting. CHAIN (Coordination and harmonisation of Advanced e-Infrastructure) aims to promote collaboration between worldwide e-Infrastructures. The project brings on board European countries, such as Italy, Czech Republic, Spain and Greece, to work with China, Africa, Latin America, India, Asia-Pacific and the Middle Eastern region. The aim is to take concrete steps towards coordination with projects in these regions, and in particular to help build intercontinental virtual research communities, for example in the areas of environment and climate change.

Yesterday’s discussions took place at GARR and focused on the nuts and bolts of the new project, how they will work together and interact with other projects. Key areas of cooperation with the European Grid Infrastructure for example include operations, MoUs and Service Level Agreements. CHAIN will be working with EPIKH (Exchange Programme to Advance e-Infrastructure Know How) in the area of training, with the first event to be held in Chile. Several workshops are also planned in scientific areas that have or aim to have intercontinental cooperation and e-ScienceTalk will aim to bring you news from as many of these as we can!

Today’s presentations will focus more on how the different areas of the e-Infrastructure world can work together to support the user communities. Looking forward to hearing more…