CC-IN2P3

CC-IN2P3
Name	CC-IN2P3
Formation	1972
Headquarters	Lyon, Rhône
Leader title	Director
Parent organization	CNRS

CC-IN2P3

CC-IN2P3 is a computational and data center that provides high-performance computing, storage, and data management services to the scientific community, supporting experiments and institutions across physics, astrophysics, and related fields. It serves as a national and international hub connecting researchers, laboratories, and collaborations such as those engaged with particle physics, astronomy, and climate science, integrating resources with major facilities and networks.

Overview

The center operates within a networked ecosystem linking national institutions like Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, and international organizations including CERN, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health. It supports experiments run by collaborations such as ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, ALICE, IceCube Collaboration, and observatories like European Southern Observatory, Square Kilometre Array, Very Large Telescope. The center interfaces with grid and cloud initiatives exemplified by Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, Open Science Grid, EMBL-EBI, PRACE, and networking projects such as GÉANT, Internet2, RENATER.

History

The center traces its roots to regional computing needs linked to laboratories including Institut de physique nucléaire de Lyon, Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire, Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules, and collaborations with industrial partners like Bull SAS, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel. Over decades it has evolved alongside milestones such as the commissioning of the Large Hadron Collider, the operation of Super-Kamiokande, the discovery announcements involving Higgs boson, and developments around projects like Planck (spacecraft), Gaia (satellite), and LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Its growth paralleled European computing initiatives including EGEE, EUDAT, and foundations like European Research Council.

Organization and Governance

Governance combines oversight by national bodies including Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (France), CNRS, and academic stakeholders from École normale supérieure de Lyon, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université de Bordeaux, and partner laboratories such as Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique. Management coordinates with international consortia including European Organization for Nuclear Research, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, INFN, and advisory boards comprising representatives from University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Max Planck Society, and funding agencies such as Agence nationale de la recherche.

Facilities and Infrastructure

Physical infrastructure includes data halls, tape archives, and compute clusters co-located with laboratories like Centre hospitalier universitaire de Lyon and research campuses near Monts d'Or (France). Storage technologies and vendors integrated over time include systems from NetApp, EMC Corporation, Seagate Technology, and tape libraries compatible with LTO (tape format). Networking connects through exchanges such as LINX, France-IX, and transnational backbones tied to European Grid Infrastructure. Energy and redundancy planning engages partners like RTE (Réseau de transport d'électricité) and cooling suppliers including Schneider Electric. Security and identity management follow standards adopted by InCommon and federations like eduGAIN.

Scientific Activities and Services

Services span batch scheduling, data preservation, virtual research environments, and user support for collaborations such as Belle II, KM3NeT, JUNO (physics experiment), Hyper-Kamiokande, and observational projects like Euclid (spacecraft), James Webb Space Telescope, and Herschel Space Observatory. The center provides middleware and software support involving ecosystems like ROOT (software), GEANT4, HEP Software Foundation, CERNBox, GitLab, Jupyter Notebook, and container technologies from Docker, Singularity. It enables workflows used by groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and supports data analysis pipelines for missions by NOAA, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and consortia including Human Genome Project-related archives.

Collaborations and Projects

CC-IN2P3 participates in European and international projects such as Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, EuroHPC, EGI (European Grid Infrastructure), and domain-specific collaborations with SKA Organisation, AstroParticle Physics (APPEC), ITER, ALMA Observatory, and climate initiatives tied to Copernicus Programme. Scientific partnerships extend to universities including Sorbonne University, Heidelberg University, University of Cambridge, University of Tokyo, and research institutes like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Funding and Impact

Funding is provided by national funding bodies such as CNRS, Agence nationale de la recherche, regional authorities of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and European frameworks including European Commission grants. The center’s impact is evidenced by contributions to high-profile results from collaborations like ATLAS, CMS, IceCube Collaboration, and astrophysical surveys linked to Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS. Its services enable publications in journals like Nature (journal), Science (journal), Physical Review Letters, and support award-winning science recognized by prizes such as the Nobel Prize in Physics, Breakthrough Prize, and European Physical Society Prize.

Category:Scientific computing centers