Collaborative Research: EAGER: Leveraging Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and Developing Organizational Resilience for NSF Large Facilities in the Pandemic Era

2020年COVID-19全球大流行对研究企业造成重大干扰。NSF支持的大型设施是美国研究基础设施的关键要素，并且越来越依赖于先进的网络基础设施（CI）-包括先进的计算，数据和软件资产，网络以及相关的专业劳动力-来完成其科学任务。本研究调查了大型设施如何受到影响，并正在应对大流行的挑战，重点是了解与使用现有CI相关的因素。该项目还将探讨CI在更广泛的社会背景下的价值，即人们和设施如何感知和应对重大破坏性事件。目标是确定如何设计大型设施组织，使其在危机和重大灾害期间更具弹性，以及需要哪些CI能力来支持这些和其他大型科学项目在此类中断期间完成其科学任务。本研究包括与流行期间NSF大型设施和CI相关的三个主要研究问题：（a）在大流行病情况下，哪些类型的研究活动仍然“照常”，哪些类型的活动必须调整或完全停止？(b)如果设施可以让时间倒流，他们会做些什么来更好地准备？以及（c）设施从当前的中断中吸取了哪些教训，以及如何将这些教训最好地传播给设施、CI和研究团体？该方法以Weick的组织理论为基础，并通过制定（立即行动），选择（规则建立）和保留（确定值得在未来事件中重新利用的方法）的阶段来检查环境（生态变化）的破坏，并将反馈回路连接到阶段和环境。该项目的目标将主要通过与领域科学家、CI用户、开发人员和从事NSF大型设施科学和运营的管理员进行访谈来实现。该项目还将分析和记录设施的组织结构，以确定与国家传播和信息资源和服务的关键接触点，以提高更广泛的传播和信息社区与设施接触的能力。该项目的最终目标是为设施和其他大型科学项目提供一个框架，以减轻在当前和未来危机时期对其科学和业务活动的干扰。研究结果和发现将广泛传播给利益相关者社区。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 has created major disruptions to the research enterprise. NSF-supported large facilities are critical elements of US research infrastructure and are increasingly dependent on advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) – comprising advanced computing, data and software assets, networking, and the related specialized workforce – to accomplish their science missions. This study investigates how large facilities are impacted by, and are responding to, the pandemic challenge with a focus on understanding factors related to the use of existing CI. This project will also explore the value of CI in the broader social context of how people and the facilities perceive and respond to major disruptive events. The goal is to determine how to design large facility organizations to be more resilient during crises and major disasters and what CI capabilities are needed to support these and other large science projects to accomplish their science missions during such disruptions.This study comprises three main research questions related to NSF large facilities and CI during the pandemic: (a) What types of research activities remain "business as usual" and what types of activities must adapt or stop completely under pandemic conditions? (b) If facilities could turn back time, what would they have done to better prepare? And (c) What lessons are facilities learning from the current disruptions, and how can these be best disseminated to the facility, CI, and research communities? The approach is grounded in Weick's Theory of Organizing, and examines disruptions from the environment (ecological change) through the stages of enactment (immediate actions), selection (rules establishment), and retention (identification of approaches worth re-utilizing in future events), with feedback loops linking the stages and the environment. The project’s goals will be accomplished primarily through interviews with domain scientists, CI users, developers, and administrators who are engaged in NSF large facility science and operations. The project will also analyze and document the organizational structures of the facilities to identify the key engagement points with national CI resources and services, towards enhancing the ability of the broader CI community to engage with the facilities. The ultimate objective of this project is to provide a framework for facilities and other large science projects to mitigate disruptions to their scientific and operational activities in current and future times of crisis. Study outcomes and findings will be widely disseminated to the stakeholder communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.