INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

INFRASTRUCTURE

PROGRAMME

Research, societal and economic impact

• Indirectly – via the research conducted on grants funded by other EPSRC programmes and by industrial collaboration; facilities provide the underpinning support

• Directly – continued support of facilities provides employment for hundreds of highly skilled people with direct spill over effects into supporting SMEs responsible for instrument and software development.

International links

Infrastructure is directly involved in the ESFRI PRACE (Partnership For Advanced Computing in Europe) project aiming to provide a pan-European HPC infrastructure. The UK is a principle partner with EPSRC as the lead. Researchers also benefit from contributions to current (e.g. ESRF, ILL) and future ESFRI activities via STFC. The ESFRI design study project the European Grid Initiative (EGI) is planning to link together the individual National Grid Initiatives (NGI) in each European country. EPSRC co-funds the National Grid Service (NGS), which the design study project is assuming will be the UK NGI.

programme remit

Infrastructure’s remit is to provide researchers in

the Engineering and Physical sciences with access

to the world class facilities necessary to enable

internationally competitive science. This

fundamentally supports the strategic plan vision of

making “…the UK the best place in the world in

which to engage in research and innovation.”

programme strategy

To provide a High Performance Computing

infrastructure on behalf of the UK Research

Councils

To embed e-Science approaches in the wider

research base across all research domains

To maintain an overview of EPS requirements for

large scale facilities and ensure appropriate

access for researchers via participation with STFC

To develop the strategy for future EPSRC support

of mid-range facilities in the EPS area

To identify and engage with EPSRC programmes

in developing facility focussed initiatives.

INFRASTRUCTURE

PROGRAMME

Major facilities and infrastructure

Infrastructure’s primary focus is the provision and management of e-Science and HPC infrastructures for UK researchers. These include:

• National Super Computing Services (HECToR and HPCx) • The National Grid Service (NGS)

• The Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII-UK) • Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE).

In addition to this, Infrastructure also provides an interface between EPSRC and the central facilities; these include ISIS, Diamond Light Source, Central Laser Facility, Research Complex at Harwell, ESRF and ILL. The programme also maintains a

watching brief on other ESFRI initiatives and facilities that may have relevance for EPSRC researchers.

Infrastructure is also remitted with the progression of the strategy for Mesoscale facilities such a FELIX and the Chemistry National Services.

Public engagement

The e-Science Envoy, Malcolm Atkinson is the Programme Chair for the annual International Summer School for Grid Computing. The school offers an opportunity for students to hear about the latest achievements from Europe, North America and Asia, and experience a variety of grid systems, including practical exercises and tutorials. In addition, the large facilities at Daresbury and Harwell also have extensive outreach and public education programmes both locally and nationally.

INFRASTRUCTURE

PROGRAMME

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon

SN2 1ET www.epsrc.ac.uk

Subthemes by % value of programme

Please click the links below to view the subtheme pages. e-Science 52%

High performance computing 17% International 31%

Inter-relation with other EPSRC programmes

Programme % of total EPSRC budget

Maths Physical Sciences ICT M3E PES Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Energy Healthcare Digital Economy Nanoscience Cross Council        

Programmes Level of interaction

INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

e-Science

At a glance

e-Science is the invention of computer-enabled methods and their application to research. The Infrastructure

Programme enables core e-Science research by providing underpinning support though the funding of:

Centres to support users; network grants to enable researchers to meet and share experiences and best

practise; and e-Infrastructure facilities and services which enable high quality research, e.g. National

Grid Service.

EPSRC e-Science programme

In 2001 the UK e-Science Programme was launched. Funding was allocated between the e-Science Core Programme (details below), and individual Research Council e-Science Programmes. EPSRC invested £44M in its e-Science programme. This Programme has now come to an end and e-Science has become embedded across all EPSRC’s programmes. Data relating to these projects can be found in the relevant Programme’s Landscape Document.

Core e-Science programme

The core e-Science Programme was an initiative which involved all of the Research Councils and was managed by the EPSRC. Today EPSRC are the sole funders of the Core Programme.

Fellowships

Dr M Lapata – Edinburgh

Advanced research fellows Number: 1 Total:

Prof I Horrocks – Oxford

Prof M Atkinson – Edinburgh

Senior research fellows Number: 1 Total:

Professorial research fellow Number: 1 Total:

Post-doctoral fellows Number: 1 Total:

Grants funded

Grants value

Facilities Provision

National Grid Service (NGS): EPSRC co-funds the NGS with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The NGS aims to enable coherent electronic access for UK researchers to all computational and data based resources and facilities required to carry out their research, independent of resource or researcher location. In Feb 2009 NGS’s funding was extended to enable its operation till March 2011.

Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII-UK): OMII-UK provides and supports free, open-source software to enable a sustained future for the UK e-Research community. It consists of a consortium between the Universities of Southampton, Manchester and Edinburgh and has secured EPSRC funding till March 2010.

Institutes

e-Science Institute (eSI): The eSI was established in 2001and the current focus of its work is on developing research themes over a period of six months to a year, through a series of workshops and meetings at eSI and elsewhere. eSI also organises meetings for the UK’s e-Science community and hosts visitors who interact with that community. eSI has secured funding from EPSRC till March 2011.

Networks

In 2008 we supported a number of networks to provide opportunities for researchers to meet and share experiences and best practise, in the UK and internationally.

1) National e-Science Information Network (NIN) – University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow 2) UK e-Science Engineering Task Force Network – University of Oxford

3) Adding Value to Data: Digital Repositories in Research Infrastructures – Kings College London

4) All Hands Meeting Network (AHM-Net) – University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford and Cardiff University.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis will be completed pending the RCUK review of e-Science which will take place 7-11th December 2009.

Summary

The Infrastructure Programme enables core e-Science research by providing underpinning support though the funding of: Centres to support users; Network grants to enable researchers to meet and share experiences and best practise; and e-Infrastructure Facilities and Services which enable high quality research, e.g. National Grid Service. In 2008 the Programme undertook a consultation with the e-Science community to identify the e-Infrastructure facilities and services which are required to conduct high quality research. The consultation highlighted the management, curation and development of robust software as being a key area to support. Therefore a call for proposals to provide a research infrastructure which will aid the long term sustainability of software which enables high quality research was released in March 2009. £5M will be available for this activity.

INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

E-SCIENCE

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon

SN2 1ET www.epsrc.ac.uk

Grants funded

Grants value

INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

High performance computing

At a glance

HPC project procures and manages supercomputing services to support UK researchers in conducting

internationally competitive research. In addition the programme also manages the formulation and

execution of cross council strategy relating to future HPC procurements and software development.

Total PhD studentships

Number of

(all EPSRC sources)

postdoctoral fellows

68 0

0.8% of EPSRC total

PhD and postdoc fellows

Facilities Provision

The HPC programme currently manages two supercomputing facilities on behalf of the UK Research Councils. HECToR (High End Computing Terascale Resources) – System size 60 TF Cray XT4 scaling to >800 TF 2013. This facility is based at the University of Edinburgh with computational science and engineering support being provided by Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd (Oxford). The facility is funded in partnership between BBSRC, EPSRC and NERC and is free at the point of use for researchers in those communities. The service was launched in October 2007 and is due to run until October 2013.

HPCx – System size 12 TF IBM Power 5. This facility is based at Daresbury Laboratories and is run in partnership between STFC and the University of Edinburgh. This system is currently operating under a flexible scheduling model to enable an applications led approach to supercomputer use. This is open to EPSRC researchers and is scheduled to continue until January 2010.

Summary

The HPC programme provides UK academics, across Research Councils, with the supercomputing resources and support necessary to conduct internationally competitive computational science and engineering.

In addition, HPC also ensures that EPSRC researchers have access to the technical support necessary to exploit these significant hardware investments; this is achieved through targeted investment in initiatives to develop the UK’s capability in software development for HPC and also through sustained investment in activities such as the

Collaborative Computational Projects (CCPs); providing communities with the long term support necessary for code development and its effective deployment to continue their research.

The HPC programme also acts as the managing agents for supercomputing activity across the Research Councils and in this role is responsible for the project management and procurement of supercomputing systems and services. The scope of this activity is not limited to the UK and the HPC programme are actively involved in the pan-European Partnership for Advance Computing in Europe (PRACE) project aiming to provide internationally leading hardware to European researchers and provide a step change in their research capability.

As such, HPC maintains an overarching view of developments in both hardware and applications in the field of HPC to ensure that future services meet the immediate needs and future ambitions of the UK HPC community.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon

SN2 1ET www.epsrc.ac.uk

INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING