EGI.eu

EGI.eu
Name	EGI.eu
Type	international non-profit association
Founded	2010
Headquarters	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Purpose	federated research infrastructure coordination
Region served	Europe and international partners

EGI.eu is a coordinating organization that supports a federated computing infrastructure for research, integrating national and thematic research infrastructure providers across Europe and beyond. It acts as a hub connecting researchers, university consortia, research council programs, and technology suppliers to deliver distributed high-performance computing and data services. EGI.eu works with a wide spectrum of partners including European Commission, CERN, EMBL, ESA, ESO, and numerous national research organizations to enable large-scale science in domains such as astronomy, bioinformatics, climate science, and particle physics.

History

EGI.eu was established following strategic discussions linked to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures and the outcomes of projects such as EGEE and gLite. Its formation was influenced by policy initiatives from the European Commission and coordination efforts among grid computing collaborations, including contributions from CERN, Fermilab, DESY, CSC (Finland), and national infrastructure projects in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Italy. The organization evolved through successive European projects that involved partners such as PRACE, GEANT, EUDAT, OpenAIRE, and regional infrastructures in Spain, France, Germany, and Poland. Milestones include integration with initiatives supported by Horizon 2020 and alignment with roadmaps discussed at meetings involving ERC and European Research Area stakeholders.

Mission and Objectives

EGI.eu’s mission focuses on providing a sustainable federated platform for computational and data services to enable research across scientific domains. Objectives include coordinating service delivery among national providers like CSC (Finland), SURF, and DFN, promoting interoperability with infrastructures such as PRACE and GEANT, supporting open science initiatives like OpenAIRE and Zenodo, and fostering adoption of technologies from projects such as Apache Hadoop, Kubernetes, and OpenStack. Strategic goals reflect priorities articulated by bodies including the European Commission, Committee of the Regions, Council of the European Union, and sectoral stakeholders like European Space Agency and World Health Organization partners in data-driven research.

Governance and Membership

EGI.eu is governed by an elected Board representing member organizations drawn from national research and education networks, research institutes, and service providers. Membership includes national delegations from countries such as Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Greece, and Belgium, alongside organisations like CERN, EMBL, INFN, CNRS, and CSIC. The governance model interfaces with advisory bodies including representatives from European Commission directorates, domain-specific user communities such as Square Kilometre Array scientists, ELIXIR bioinformatics networks, and policy fora like Science Europe and G7 science advisors. Accountability mechanisms reflect norms promoted by entities like the European Court of Auditors and funding conditions from programs such as Horizon Europe.

Infrastructure and Services

EGI.eu coordinates a federation of compute and storage resources that interoperate with platforms including OpenStack, VMware, Kubernetes, and middleware originating from gLite and ARC. Services span distributed high-throughput computing, cloud computing, shared storage, identity and access management interoperable with eduGAIN, and data management compatible with FAIR principles promoted by GO FAIR and Research Data Alliance. User-facing portals and tools draw on software from projects linked to CERN (e.g., EOS storage concepts), GitHub hosted repositories, and science gateways used by astronomy consortia, genomics centers, and earth observation teams collaborating with Copernicus. Integration efforts also connect to national supercomputing centers engaged with PRACE and to data archives maintained by EMBL-EBI, NASA, and ESA science missions.

Projects and Collaborations

EGI.eu participates in and coordinates numerous European and international projects, collaborating with consortia such as PRACE, EUDAT, OpenAIRE, ELIXIR, RDA, GEANT, and domain initiatives like SKA, LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Human Brain Project, and Copernicus services. It has been involved in H2020 and Horizon Europe projects, working alongside institutions like University of Oxford, Max Planck Society, CEA, CNRS, INRIA, TU Delft, Imperial College London, and Karolinska Institutet. Cross-disciplinary collaborations connect to industry partners including IBM, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and open-source communities centered on Apache Software Foundation projects.

Funding and Legal Status

EGI.eu is legally established as an international non-profit association under Dutch law with headquarters in Amsterdam. Its funding model combines membership fees from national and organizational members, service-level agreements with research infrastructures, and grants from European frameworks such as Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe administered by the European Commission. Additional support has come through contracts and collaboration with pan-European organizations including European Space Agency, CERN, and national research funding agencies such as UK Research and Innovation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, ANR, and NWO. Financial oversight aligns with practices advocated by European Court of Auditors and reporting requirements linked to EU research funding mechanisms.

Category:Research infrastructure organizations