8th International Workshop on Science Gateways (IWSG 2016)

科学网关是为更广泛的受众利用科学基础设施和仪器的关键，因为它们提供了定制的和直观的用户界面。因此，它们是实现NSF科学使命的关键组成部分。从本质上讲，科学网关是一组特定于社区的工具、应用程序和数据集合，它们通过web门户或桌面应用程序集成在一起，为分布式数据、分布式计算和仪器提供对资源和服务的访问，这样底层基础设施的复杂性就可以对用户完全隐藏起来。由于科学门户面临的挑战是多方面的和跨学科的，并且围绕门户有相当多的国际活动，因此将来自世界各地的用户、科学门户开发人员和科学门户提供者聚集在一起分享学习和最佳实践至关重要。IWSG 2016是成功的年度研讨会系列IWSG（国际科学门户研讨会）的第8次研讨会，IWSG是一个跨学科的研讨会系列，位于欧洲，汇集了这三个小组，并讨论了不同的科学领域，如生命科学，生物医学研究，化学，物理。它形成了一个讨论该领域问题和解决方案的国际平台，以确定新问题，塑造未来的研究方向，促进思想，标准和共同要求的交流，并推动在e-Science中更广泛地采用科学网关。IWSG 2016选择了富有远见的主题演讲者，目的是让研讨会参与者了解科学门户的成就，并展示他们对科学门户的发展和未来的新观点和愿景。除了主题演讲外，IWSG 2016还包括从同行评审过程中选出的演讲、闪电演讲和演示环节。提交一篇完整的论文可能会导致一个演讲，提交摘要可能会导致一个闪电演讲或演示。本次研讨会的一个关键要素是，最终的摘要和演讲将在网站上公开提供，开放获取的会议记录将在有索引的在线期刊上发表。开放获取索引文章将吸引更多的参与者，并将触及更广泛的社区。此外，IWSG 2016还与美国和澳大利亚的科学门户系列研讨会合作。入选论文的作者将被邀请在三个研讨会联合组织的特刊上提交一篇长篇论文。会谈、讨论和出版物将提供科学门户和相应技术的全面视图，同时为更多的洲际合作奠定基础。新技术、模拟和实验方法，如下一代测序或SKA（平方公里阵列）望远镜，使研究人员能够在极短的时间内创建大量数据。分布式计算基础设施（dci）的增加，如网格和云基础设施，满足了对计算能力和存储的需求。尽管资源的可用性不断增加，但这些设施和基础设施的广泛采用和创建数据的工具的无缝集成都没有跟上同样的步伐。造成这种情况的主要原因在于这些基础设施和仪器的人机界面的复杂性。科学网关解决了这个问题，并提供了对计算基础设施和仪器的简单和直观的访问，而不考虑它们的位置。由于科学门户面临的挑战是多方面的和跨学科的，并且围绕门户有相当多的国际活动，因此将来自世界各地的用户、科学门户开发人员和科学门户提供者聚集在一起分享学习和最佳实践是至关重要的。IWSG系列研讨会每年在不同的欧洲城市举行，过去几年吸引了30至65名参与者。该研讨会及其系列研讨会总体上对科学网关领域的研究做出了重大贡献。IWSG 2016的产出和讨论将反映科学网关领域的当前国际标准，使研究小组在科学数据管理、协作和计算领域获得新的能力，并使研究小组通过使用同行评审系统来选择最佳论文和摘要，从而达到国际卓越标准。讲习班帮助以提供和使用科学门户的新方法的形式创造资源，这将促进更广泛地采用分布式和并行方法。与美国和澳大利亚的系列研讨会和联合特刊的伙伴关系进一步扩大了对洲际层面的接触。

Science gateways are key to the utilization of the science infrastructure and instruments for wider audiences because they provide a customized and intuitive user interface. Hence they are critical components in enabling NSF's science mission. Essentially, science gateways are a community-specific set of tools, applications, and data collections that are integrated together via a web portal or a desktop application, providing access to resources and services for distributed data, distributed computing and instruments, so that the complexity of the underlying infrastructure can be completely hidden from the users. Since the challenges for science gateways are many-fold and interdisciplinary, and there is considerable international activity around gateways, it is crucial to bring together users, science gateway developers and science gateway providers from across the world to share learnings and best practices. IWSG 2016 is the 8th workshop of the successful annual workshop series IWSG (International Workshop on Science Gateways), an interdisciplinary workshop series located in Europe that brings together these three groups and addresses various scientific domains, e.g. life sciences, biomedical research, chemistry, physics. It forms an international platform for discussing problems and solutions in the area, to identify new issues, to shape future directions for research, foster the exchange of ideas, standards and common requirements and push towards the wider adoption of science gateways in e-Science. Visionary keynote speakers have been chosen for IWSG 2016 with the intention of exposing workshop participants to science gateway achievements to present their fresh views and visions on the evolution and future of science gateways. Besides the keynotes, IWSG 2016 features talks, lightning talks, and demonstration sessions selected from submissions in a peer-review process. Submission of a full paper may result in a talk, submission of an abstract may result in a lightning talk or a demonstration. A key element of this workshop is that the resulting abstracts and talks will be made publicly available on the website, open-access proceedings will be published in an indexed online journal. Open-access indexed articles will attract more participants and will reach a wider community. Additionally, IWSG 2016 partners with the US and Australasian workshop series on science gateways. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit a significantly extended paper to a special issue jointly organized by the three workshops. The talks, discussions and publications will provide a thorough view on science gateways and corresponding technologies while setting the stage for more intercontinental collaborations. New technologies, simulations and experimental methods such as next-gen sequencing or the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) telescopes have enabled researchers to create huge amounts of data in extremely short times. The demand for compute power and storage is met with a rise in provision of distributed computing infrastructures (DCIs), such as grid and cloud infrastructures. Despite the increasing availability of resources, neither the broad uptake of these facilities and infrastructures nor the seamless integration of instruments creating data are following the same pace. The main reasons for this lie in the complexity of the human interface to these infrastructures and instruments. Science gateways tackle this problem and offer easy and intuitive access to computing infrastructures and instruments irrespective of their location. Since the challenges for science gateways are many-fold and interdisciplinary, and there is considerable international activity around gateways, it is crucial to bring together users, science gateway developers and science gateway providers from across the world to share learning and best practices. The IWSG workshop series taking place each year at a different European city has attracted between 30 and 65 participants in the last years. The workshop and the workshop series in general make a significant contribution to the research in the area of science gateways. The output and discussions at IWSG 2016 will reflect the current international standard in the area of science gateways, enable research groups attain novel capabilities in the area of scientific data management, collaboration and computing and enabled research groups attain standard of international excellence by using a peer-review system to select the best papers and abstracts only. The workshop aids in the creation of resources in the form of novel approaches for the delivery and use of science gateways that will facilitate a wider uptake of distributed and parallel methods. The partnership with the US and Australian workshop series and the joint special issue enlarges the outreach further to intercontinental level.