Many large NSF Collaboratories are individually solving sometimes very similar CI challenges and utilizing the same academic research software. These projects also face very similar challenges in the development of new research software necessary to achieve the science objectives of the collaboratory. Alignment, re-use and coordinated development of enabling CI across these projects could lead to a National CI Roadmap, greatly enhancing infrastructure for research and education in the US. However, adopting new technologies and approaches mid-project imposes sufficiently high risk to the success of the science goals of the individual projects that this level of coordination and leverage rarely experienced at a deep level. This research will explore the risks and benefits, and development of new processes and communities to establish a coordinated National CI Roadmap.
In developing new processes for coordinated CI, the investigators and participating collaboratories will examine issues and concerns including: risk assessment and management for outsourced services and participation and utilization of developing or emerging open source software; privacy, integrity, assurances; code management; separation of software at the boundary of domain science and enabling infrastructure; virtualization; federated identity and group management; hosted data management and analytics offerings; integration with and dependence upon campus services and communicating with campus IT leadership.
