ESC eScience Centre and National Grid Support Centre
Project Overview
The e-Science Centre is responsible within CCLRC for the Grid infrastructure and architecture, the development of generic middleware modules, protals and agents. Much of this work is directed towards providing e-Science technology to improve the effectiveness of the large-scale facilities managed by CCLRC, including HPCx and the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury.
The Centre also collaborates with staff and users in academic research departments to pilot and deploy Grid tools. Within the national core e-Science programme the centre delivers the Grid Support Team, coordinates the National Grid Service and administers the UK's certification authority supporting Grid security. The Centre supports and participates in other research Councils' e-Science testbed programmes and runs training and awareness activities. On the international stage the Centre is involved in the Global Grid Forum and is spearheading collaborations with San Diego Supercomputing Centre, the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications who are leading US development and deployment of Grid hardware, communications, middleware and applications technologies.
Objectives
- To promote a data and computational Grid philosophy across all CCLRC's activities;
- Pilot the relevant techniques (metadata development, remote working, high-performance computing, data curation and transfer, user interfaces, service-oriented architecture) on present facilities;
- Build Grid functionality into upgraded facilities such as the Diamond Syncrotron;
- Promote the use of the Grid to wider communities such as in remote sensing, biology, social science and medicine.