The Program Committee has accepted that the TCB give a plenary presentation at CHEP26, though we were asked to revise the abstract to give more concrete information about the various topics and focus less on the process, which we have done and are soliciting comments from the TCB before forwarding it to the CHEP PC. We have also asked whether the former computing coordinators wish to continue active involvement in the TCB and as co-authors of the CHEP presentation:
WLCG Technical Evolution: Preparing for HL-LHC with a Community-Driven Roadmap
Authors: The WLCG Technical Coordination Board: J. Andreeva, D. Benjamin, L. Betev, C. Bozzi, D. Britton, I. Chakaberia, B. Couturier, A, De Salvo, A. Dewhurst, A. Di Girolamo, K. Ellis, J. Elmsheuser, J. Flix, J. C. Luna, M. Litmaath, S. Lammel, J. Letts, M. Mascheroni, S. McKee, A. Melo, E. Moyse, I. Osborne, P. Paparrigopoulos, S. Piano, E. Sexton‑Kennedy, O. Smirnova, D. South, N. Srimanobhas, F. Stagni, and J. van Eldik
With the end of Run 3 of the LHC approaching, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) is entering an important transition toward the HL-LHC era. To meet the substantial increase in data volume, computational requirements, and resource heterogeneity, while preserving reliability, sustainability, and community cohesion, we have launched the development of the WLCG Technical Roadmap 2026-2030. The Roadmap is a consensus-driven, community-owned actionable plan that identifies key gaps and defines concrete milestones across the infrastructure and services landscape. It is organized into nine chapters each outlining a major area of evolution. Planning for WLCG facilities evolution, data management, networking, workflow management, authorization and authentication (tokens), security, WLCG services, heterogeneous resources and new infrastructures (for example, leveraging GPUs) are presented, taking into account that experimental requirements are still evolving. By presenting this roadmap at CHEP, we seek to engage the broader HEP community to gather feedback, foster collaboration, and build collective awareness. As one of the pillars of LHC physics and a cornerstone for data-intensive science even beyond the LHC, WLCG’s future relies on coordinated innovation and active community participation.
The TCB met on February 24th to discuss the timeline for delivery of chapter drafts in anticipation of this presentation. Many chapters are well-advanced or have plans to make solid progress on writing and socialization during the next several weeks, including facility evolution (to be discussed at OTF#10 at the HEPiX Spring Workshop in Lisbon in April), data management and network management evolution (which are already quite advanced drafts), workflow management, security and authentication & authorization infrastructure (token transition), services (to be discussed at OTF#9 on Tuesday, March 24th & 25th), and a fresh effort for new architectures and infrastructures e.g., GPUs, building on the success of the WLCG Workshop on Heterogeneous Architectures in December 2025.
The WLCG LHCC Referees met on Tuesday, March 3rd with the WLCG (including the TCB) and the experiments [Indico, restricted]. There was a presentation on ROOT development plans e.g., RNTuple in ROOT7. There was a question from the Referees about progress on the WLCG Technical Roadmap for HL-LHC.