As science today grows increasingly digital, it poses exciting challenges and opportunities for researchers. Whether it is streaming data from sensors, simulating the formation of tornadoes, annotating and sharing tagged audio and video data, or using geographic information systems to anticipate the spread of disease, the frontiers of transformative science are enormous and continue to grow. Many scientists are turning to web portals or science gateways to allow them to analyze, share, and understand large volumes of data more effectively. The existence of science gateways - and the sophisticated cyberinfrastructure (CI) tools and resources behind these accessible web interfaces - can significantly improve the productivity of researchers facing the most difficult challenges. Most important, science gateways can democratize access to the cyberinfrastructure that enables cutting edge science. Now the best minds can tackle today¹s most challenging science problems, regardless of their affiliation.
Science gateway developers face several challenges. They often work in isolation even though development can be quite similar across domain areas, they bridge local, campus, national and sometimes international cyberinfrastructure, they need foundational building blocks so they can focus on higher-level grand-challenge functionality. Sustainable funding for science gateways can also be difficult to secure as they span the worlds of research and infrastructure.
This one-year planning award will gather community feedback, forming the foundation of a Science Gateway Institute. The institute will be an incubator of sorts for science gateways, vastly increasing their chances for long term success. It will provide a forum for developers to share ideas, approaches and software. It will provide expertise - in science gateway building, in technologies enabling grand challenge research, in open community software development, in virtual organizations, in project management and in science gateway sustainability. It will provide workforce development, training the next generation for careers in this dynamic, cross-disciplinary and important area.
