RCN: Advancing Research and Education Through a National Network of Campus Research Computing Infrastructures - The CaRC Consortium

随着计算在科学发现中的作用不断增加，全国各地的校园都面临着为计算能力提供有效便利的任务，以便研究人员能够在他们的研究中利用这些能力。这种促进需要新的组织方法来组合、组织和操作构成校园研究计算能力的人力资源和物理资源。校园研究计算(CARC)基础设施联盟的使命是为交流和传播最佳实践、专业知识和技术提供一个全国性论坛，从而推动基于校园的研究计算活动的发展。通过将广泛的校园和社区利益相关者聚集在一起，CARC联盟为不断发展和扩大的国家网络基础设施生态系统提供了一个新颖而互补的元素。根据联盟章程，CARC联盟由一个理事会管理，在推动计算对教职员工和学生生产力的影响方面发挥着独特的作用。作为一个受校园研究计算视角驱动的组织，CARC在全国范围内提供了几项关键成果，包括共享知识、最佳实践、软件和硬件技术、专业知识、劳动力发展和专业发展。这填补了全国研究计算结构的空白；随着越来越多的校园认识到对研究计算能力以及对促进者和类似职能职位的投资的价值，许多这些校园及其个别工作人员被孤立在一个新的实践领域，没有从业者社区提供必要的支持基础设施。

As the role of computing in scientific discovery continues to increase, campuses across the country are challenged with the task of providing effective facilitation for computing capabilities so that researchers can harness these capabilities in their investigations. Such facilitation requires novel organizational approaches to the way that both human and physical resources that constitute campus research computing capabilities are composed, structured, and operated. The mission of the Campus Research Computing (CaRC) Infrastructures Consortium is to provide a national forum for the exchange and dissemination of best practices, expertise and technologies, enabling the advancement of campus-based research computing activities. By bringing together a wide range of campuses and community stakeholders, the CaRC Consortium provides a novel, yet complementary, element of an evolving and expanding national cyberinfrastructure ecosystem. Governed by a council according to the consortium bylaws, the CaRC Consortium acts as unique force in advancing the impact of computing on the productivity of faculty and students. As an organization that is driven by the campus perspective of research computing, the CaRC offers several key outcomes at a national scale including the sharing of knowledge, best practices, software and hardware technologies, expertise, workforce development, and professional development. This fills a void within the national research computing fabric; as more campuses recognize the value of investments in research computing capacity and also in facilitators and like-functioning positions, many of these campuses and their individual staff members are isolated in a new field of practice without the necessary supporting infrastructure from a practitioner community.