GRID computing and Dutch funding policies

For many months NIKHEF’s main funding organization FOM (Fundamental Research on Matter) informed us that a large chunk of money would “soon” become available for large research infrastructures built in the Netherlands. Together with colleagues from the Life Sciences, Astronomy, Social Sciences, Humanities and the National Computing Facilities (NCF), NIKHEF planned to write a proposal for a national GRID computing facility. NIKHEF’s main interest in GRID computing is to have a Tier-1 facility to store, simulate and analyze the enormous data volume of the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. Personally, I think the real justification for a Dutch national GRID computing facility lies in the opportunities it provides to the other fields aforementioned and notably the Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. (NIKHEF’s strong point is that NIKHEF scientists, together with all those other scientists around the world who also want to make the LHC experiments a major success will realize GRID computing, no matter what.) The past months I learned that in these other research areas really many exciting studies become feasible once you can correlate massive databases in an effective manner (i.e. having lots of storage capacity and compute power). Surprisingly (at least to me) also industries like Philips have a strong interest in GRID computing this to optimize designs of new (medical) equipment based on massive simulations.

The proposal itself was written is a relatively short (very intense) period. This was only possible because in the Netherlands the GRID community is well-organized thanks to the VL-e (Virtual Laboratory for e-Sciences) project. We coined the proposal: “BIG GRID”. BIG GRID was submitted jointly by NCF, NIKHEF and NBIC (Nationaal Bio Informatica Centrum). Of the 42 proposals submitted (representing almost 1.5 billion Euro) BIG GRID was one of the ten invited for an interview. These interviews took place in the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam. During the interview it became very clear that the referees had consulted international experts; that they knew exactly the delicate issues in this field and that they (at least those that fired the questions) were on top of the issue of GRID computing.

During a big national event in “De Fabrique” (a former industrial complex and nowadays an avant-garde conference center) in Maarssen we heard that BIG GRID was among the five proposals recommended for funding! We now have to wait until January 2006 to hear what the Dutch government will do with this recommendation. For me it was the first time that I saw the Dutch prime Minister in person. And once again the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, M.J.A. van der Hoeven, gave an entertaining opening speech to the session I attended. (See also: http://qd.typepad.com/16/2005/04/index.html).