EGI Conference

EGI Conference
Name	EGI Conference
Status	Active
Frequency	Annual
Country	International
First	2005
Organizer	EGI Foundation

EGI Conference is an annual international meeting that brings together stakeholders from research infrastructures, high-performance computing, and European science policy to discuss distributed computing, data management, and collaborative services. The conference convenes technical experts, project managers, funders, and representatives from universities, research centers, and industry to shape the roadmap for cyberinfrastructure, digital research environments, and innovation ecosystems. It features plenary sessions, technical tracks, training workshops, and networking events designed to connect communities across disciplines and regions.

Overview

The conference serves as a focal point connecting European Research Area initiatives, Horizon 2020 projects, Horizon Europe programmes, and national research and education networks such as GÉANT (networking) and JANET (network). It addresses interoperability with infrastructures like PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), EOSC (European Open Science Cloud), and CERN computing services, and aligns with roadmaps from bodies including European Commission, Science Europe, UNESCO, National Science Foundation (United States), and European Space Agency. Themes often intersect with projects such as OpenAIRE, RISE (Research Infrastructure), Copernicus Programme, and collaborations with universities like University of Oxford, Technische Universität München, University of Cambridge, Università di Bologna, and Université PSL.

History

The meeting evolved from early gatherings of grid computing initiatives involving EGEE (Enabling Grids for E-sciencE), GridPP, Nordugrid, INFN teams, and participants from European Organisation for Nuclear Research experiments including ATLAS (particle detector), CMS (particle detector), LHCb, and ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). Over time it incorporated influences from Open Grid Forum, IEEE, ACM, and regional projects like XSEDE, NorduGrid, PRACE, and SURFnet. Key milestones included alignment with EOSC-hub coordination, partnerships with EUDAT, and formalisation under the EGI Foundation governance, responding to policy changes from the European Commission and research funding models such as FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme) and Horizon 2020.

Organisation and Governance

The conference is organised by the EGI Foundation in coordination with partner organisations including national infrastructures like CESNET, CSC (IT Center for Science), INFN, NIKHEF, and international partners such as TERENA and GÉANT (network). Governance involves steering committees, programme committees, and advisory boards that include representatives from European Grid Infrastructure, OpenAIRE, RDA (Research Data Alliance), ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures), and funders like European Commission and national ministries such as Ministry of Education and Research (Germany). The programme committee collaborates with editors and peer reviewers drawn from universities including Imperial College London, École Polytechnique, TU Delft, and research organisations such as Max Planck Society and CNRS.

Conference Programme and Themes

Typical programmes combine plenaries, technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and poster tracks covering topics related to distributed computing, cloud computing, data stewardship, and cybersecurity as applied in projects like OpenStack, Kubernetes, Hadoop, Spark, Galileo (satellite navigation), and Copernicus Programme applications. Sessions often include keynote speakers from institutions like European Commission, CERN, NASA, European Space Agency, and companies such as IBM, Google, Microsoft Research, Amazon Web Services. Thematic tracks have addressed reproducible science with contributions from GitHub, Zenodo, ORCID, and DataCite, while training and certification draw on curricula from ELIXIR, ISOC, ACM, and IEEE Computer Society.

Participants and Community

Participants include researchers from University of Edinburgh, Politecnico di Milano, KU Leuven, École Normale Supérieure, data managers from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, representatives from funding agencies such as UK Research and Innovation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and industry delegates from firms like Atos, Siemens, Red Hat, and HP. The community comprises technical operators, service providers, principal investigators from networks such as GLORIAD, and project coordinators from EU projects like EGI-Engage. Outreach and diversity efforts involve partnerships with organisations such as Women in Tech, Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, and regional clusters including Mediterranean Universities Network.

Impact and Outputs

The conference has produced community roadmaps, white papers, and technical reports adopted by initiatives such as EOSC and ESFRI infrastructures. Outcomes include contributions to standards from bodies like Open Grid Forum and W3C, software releases coordinated with OpenStack Foundation, pilot services integrated by CERN and national grids, and training materials reused by universities including University College London and ETH Zurich. It has influenced policy dialogues at forums like Science Europe, European Commission directorates, and contributed to collaborations with FAIR Data Principles advocates and Research Data Alliance deliverables.

Locations and Scheduling

Historically hosted across European cities including Amsterdam, Rome, Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Tallinn, Athens, Lisbon, and Bucharest, the conference follows an annual cycle timed to intersect with major events such as Supercomputing Conference, FOSDEM, and PIDapalooza. Venue selection rotates among partner institutions and conference centres associated with universities like Trinity College Dublin and national research centres such as CNRS Centre to balance accessibility for participants from the European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, and candidate countries including Serbia and Turkey.

Category:Information technology conferences