Speaker
Abstract
E-Science and e-Infrastructures (made of network and grid layers) are considered key enablers of progress and sustainable development and the European Commission has heavily invested in the last 8-10 years to fund e-Infrastructures as building blocks of the European Research Area (ERA). Project-based initiatives are consolidating themselves into long term dependable realities (GEANT and EGI) supporting many scientific disciplines and end users. However, if one compares the cost per user of grids with that of a network user, the result is striking: grids are much more expensive than networks. The only way to sustain and justify these investments, in these times of world crisis, is to rapidly and widely enlarge the base of users through an intensive and capillary dissemination and training which percolates into the University curricula and includes an effective technology transfer towards the worlds of business and industry. A “workflow” is needed to drive as many present and future researchers and technologists as possible from a condition of e-Infrastructure “unawares” to a condition of “day-by-day” users.
This talk will highlight a proposed Specific Support Center for EGI highlighting business and technology transfer aspects.
