Collaborative Research: The Science Gateway Institute (SGW-I) for the Democratization and Acceleration of Science

随着当今科学日益数字化，它为研究人员带来了令人兴奋的挑战和机遇。无论是来自传感器的流数据，模拟龙卷风的形成，注释和共享标记的音频和视频数据，还是使用地理信息系统来预测疾病的传播，变革性科学的前沿都是巨大的，并在继续增长。许多科学家正在转向门户网站或科学网关，使他们能够更有效地分析、共享和理解大量数据。科学网关的存在——以及这些可访问的网络接口背后复杂的网络基础设施（CI）工具和资源——可以显著提高面临最困难挑战的研究人员的生产力。最重要的是，科学网关可以使访问网络基础设施的民主化，从而实现尖端科学。现在，最优秀的人才可以解决当今最具挑战性的科学问题，而不管他们属于哪个党派。科学门户的开发者面临着几个挑战。它们通常是独立工作的，尽管跨领域的开发可能非常相似，它们连接地方、校园、国家，有时甚至是国际的网络基础设施，它们需要基本的构建模块，这样它们才能专注于更高级别的重大挑战功能。科学门户的可持续资助也很难获得，因为它们跨越了研究和基础设施领域。这个为期一年的计划奖将收集社区反馈，形成科学门户研究所的基础。该研究所将成为各种科学门户的孵化器，大大增加它们取得长期成功的机会。它将为开发者提供一个论坛来分享想法、方法和软件。它将在科学门户建设、实现重大挑战研究的技术、开放社区软件开发、虚拟组织、项目管理和科学门户可持续性方面提供专业知识。它将提供劳动力发展，培训下一代在这个充满活力，跨学科和重要领域的职业生涯。

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.