The Role of Regional Organizations in Improving Access to the National Computational Infrastructure

美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）等机构通过在美国各地建立校园和国家计算中心，对国家计算基础设施进行了重大投资。财务投资不仅限于计算机硬件，还扩展到网络，软件和支持人员的投资，以帮助校园级研究人员有效地利用这些资源来回答具有挑战性的科学问题。已经出现了一组不同的组织来支持访问国家计算基础设施。许多组织专门提供服务，而其他组织则提供一系列服务。其中一些组织是自我维持的，而另一些则依靠机构的持续支持。提供类似服务的组织可能会更经常地相互沟通。由该奖项支持的改善访问研讨会将首次汇集来自校园，州，地区和其他组织的代表，他们对进一步访问和支持校园研究人员的计算资源有既得利益。参与者将制定一套建议，以帮助社区将研究人员的参与扩大到代表性不足的社区，参与及时和相关的教育和长期的计算研究人员外展工作，协调上述不同组织的努力，并利用校园，州和地区边界的资源。研讨会的目标是向美国国家科学基金会和整个社会提出一套连贯的建议，为一系列战略问题提供答案。会议组织委员会由学校、地区和国家基础设施专家组成。为了加快制定一套有用建议的进程，将在会议召开之前征求与战略问题有关的白皮书。根据对提交的论文的审查，参加会议的邀请将扩大到60个组织。为期一天半的会议将在密苏里州堪萨斯城举行，并由组织委员会成员提供便利。最终报告将于2015年底发布。提议的会议承诺协调努力，以显著改善学术研究人员的需求。这次会议将把计算研究界的需求带到组织的前沿，这些组织有独特的定位来帮助满足这些需求。在中小型校园没有资源来帮助少数有高级计算需求的研究人员的情况下，下一级——国家或其他区域组织——将处于一个很好的位置，可以接触到这些研究人员。从长远来看，这次会议的成果有望重新集中区域组织的努力，并使它们与国家基础设施的能力和校园研究人员的需求保持一致。

Agencies like the National Science Foundation have made significant investments in the national computational infrastructure by creating campus and national computation centers throughout the United States. The financial investments are not limited to computer hardware and extend to investments in networks, software, and support personnel to assist campus-level researchers to effectively use these resources to answer challenging scientific questions. A diverse set of organizations has emerged to support access to the national computational infrastructure. Many of the organizations specialize whereas others provide a range of services. Some of these organizations are self-sustaining while others rely on continued agency support. Organizations that provide similar services are likely to communicate with one another more regularly.The Improving Access Workshop, supported by this award, will bring together for the first time representatives from campus, state, regional, and other organizations with a vested interest in furthering access to and supporting computational resources by campus researchers. Participants will develop a set of recommendations to assist the community to expand researcher engagement to under-represented communities, to engage in timely and relevant education and outreach efforts to computational researchers over the long term, to coordinate efforts across the diverse set of organizations described above, and to leverage resources across campus, state, and regional boundaries.The goal of the workshop is to develop a coherent set of recommendations to the National Science Foundation and to the community, at large, which provide answers to a set of strategic questions. A Conference Organizing Committee composed of experts in campus, regional, and national infrastructure has been formed. To accelerate the process of developing a useful set of recommendations, white papers will be solicited in advance of the conference that are relevant to the strategic questions. Based on a review of papers submitted, invitations to participate in the conference will be extended to up to 60 organizations. The one and a half day conference will be held in Kansas City, MO, and facilitated by members of the organizing committee. A final report will be issued in late 2015. The proposed meeting promises to coordinate efforts that lead to significant improvements in meeting the needs of academic researchers. The meeting will bring the needs of the computational research community to the forefront of organizations that are uniquely positioned to assist in meeting those needs. In situations where a small or medium-sized campus does not have the resources to assist a small number of researchers with advanced computational needs, the next level up - the state or other regional organization - will be in an excellent position to reach out to those researchers. In the long-term, the output from this conference promises to re-focus the efforts of regional organizations and align them with the capacities of the national infrastructure and the needs of campus researchers.