The National Science Foundation?s strategy for 21st century innovation depends explicitly on the creation and effective use of cyberinfrastructure. The NSF- and Indiana University- funded workshop Available technologies, best practices, and strategies for bridging from campus to international collaborations will examine the question ?Given millions of dollars of investment in US cyberinfrastructure, technical and non-technical implementation efforts within the next 12-18 months could significantly improve the overall effectiveness of cyberinfrastructure as regards the ability of researchers and students to move much more easily across various levels of campus bridging: within the campus; from campus to national facilities; and across national boundaries to international collaborations?? We will draw on our experiences from the NSF-sponsored 2008 workshop, Cyberinfrastructure Software Sustainability and Reusability, to ensure that this workshop produces effective outcomes, including: * Specific recommendations to the NSF regarding a variety of campus bridging activities, suitable for implementation in 12-18 months based on adoption and hardening of existing technologies * Recommendations to NSF regarding possible future funding strategies related to the general area of campus bridging * Cross-fertilization of ideas as a result of bringing together diverse communities of practice
The intellectual merit of this activity is in the identification of important challenges facing the nation's science and engineering research communities, and assembling a group of leaders and workshop participants who will be qualified to offer excellent intellectual as well as practical insight on ways to identify best practices and strategies for bridging cyberinfrastructure from the campus level to international collaborations.
The broader impact of this activity will result from suggestions about how to better integrate smaller schools, particularly Minority Serving Institutions, in to the national cyberinfrstructure.
