8th International Workshop on Science Gateways (IWSG 2016)

科学门户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和直观的用户界面。因此，它们是支持美国国家科学基金会科学任务的关键组成部分。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，通过Web门户或桌面应用程序集成在一起，提供对分布式数据、分布式计算和仪器的资源和服务的访问，从而可以对用户完全隐藏底层基础设施的复杂性。由于科学门户面临的挑战是多方面的和跨学科的，而且围绕门户开展了相当多的国际活动，因此至关重要的是将来自世界各地的用户、科学门户开发者和科学门户提供者聚集在一起，分享经验和最佳做法。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个研讨会，IWSG是一个位于欧洲的跨学科研讨会系列，将这三个小组聚集在一起，讨论各种科学领域，如生命科学、生物医学研究、化学、物理。它形成了一个国际平台，用于讨论该领域的问题和解决办法，确定新的问题，确定未来的研究方向，促进思想、标准和共同要求的交流，并推动在电子科学中更广泛地采用科学网关。IWSG 2016选择了富有远见的主旨演讲者，目的是让研讨会参与者接触到科学门户的成就，提出他们对科学门户的演变和未来的新观点和愿景。除了主旨发言外，IWSG 2016还包括从同行审查过程中提交的材料中挑选出来的演讲、闪电演讲和演示会议。提交一篇全文论文可能会导致一次演讲，提交一篇摘要可能会导致一次闪电般的演讲或演示。这次讲习班的一个关键内容是，将在网站上公开提供由此产生的摘要和演讲，开放获取的会议记录将在索引的在线期刊上发表。开放获取的索引文章将吸引更多的参与者，并将覆盖更广泛的社区。此外，IWSG 2016与美国和澳大拉西亚科学门户系列研讨会合作。将邀请选定论文的作者就三个讲习班联合举办的一期特刊提交一篇篇幅较长的论文。这些会谈、讨论和出版物将提供对科学门户和相应技术的透彻看法，同时为更多的洲际合作奠定基础。新的技术、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。对计算能力和存储的需求随着提供分布式计算基础设施(DCI)的增加而得到满足，例如网格和云基础设施。尽管资源的可获得性越来越高，但这些设施和基础设施的广泛利用，以及创建数据的工具的无缝整合，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工具的人机界面很复杂。科学门户解决了这一问题，并提供了对计算基础设施和仪器的轻松和直观的访问，无论它们位于哪里。由于科学门户面临的挑战是多方面的和跨学科的，而且围绕门户开展了相当多的国际活动，因此至关重要的是将来自世界各地的用户、科学门户开发者和科学门户提供者聚集在一起，分享学习和最佳做法。IWSG讲习班系列每年在不同的欧洲城市举行，在过去几年里吸引了30至65人参加。讲习班和讲习班系列总体上对科学门户领域的研究作出了重大贡献。2016年IWSG会议的成果和讨论将反映科学门户领域的当前国际标准，使研究小组能够在科学数据管理、协作和计算领域获得新的能力，并使研究小组能够通过使用同行评议系统只选择最佳论文和摘要来达到国际卓越标准。讲习班帮助以提供和使用科学网关的新方法的形式创建资源，以促进更广泛地采用分散和并行的方法。与美国和澳大利亚研讨会系列和联合特刊的伙伴关系将进一步扩大到洲际层面。

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.