Joy Davidson
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:03:34 -0700
-----Original Message----- From: Nicola Yeeles [mailto:n.yee...@jisc.ac.uk] Sent: 01 June 2010 11:53 Subject: News release: UK researchers get connected News release 1 June 2010 UK researchers get connected Researchers connected to the UK's national grid service can now carry out long term collaborative research with peers across Europe through an improved network. UK scientists can tap into the new European grid initiative, known as EGI.eu, to access computing power, data, software and storage space in over 50 countries. EGI.eu does not own or operate any computers, but co-ordinates thousands of clusters of computers hosted in university departments and data centres, national hubs and even desktop PCs. The UK, along with the other nations, will contribute resources and make contributions of funding each year to a common pot to ensure that the initiative is sustainable. By creating this improved network it is planned that the Europe-wide research community will make significant breakthroughs in data-intensive scientific research previously considered too time consuming to consider, such as medical analysis. Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary of JISC, said: "JISC is pleased to be contributing to this significant European infrastructure initiative for the UK. EGI is a particularly important shared service enabling valuable research to be conducted cost effectively." The UK's national grid initiative is made up of the National Grid Service and GridPP projects funded by JISC, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Dr. Andrew Richards, National Grid Service director, said: "Grid computing is already having an incredible impact on how researchers are investigating and solving highly complex problems. Using grid computing in their research has been shown to save researchers time allowing for more rapid production and publication of results." Find out more about the National Grid Service and its international links at <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/eresearch/ngs.aspx>