Cyberinfrastructure as a platform to facilitate effective collaboration between institutions and support collaboratories

Abstract

Researchers, scientists, engineers, granting agencies, and increasingly complex research problems have given rise to the scientific "collaboratory"-large organizations that span many institutions, with individual members working together to explore a particular phenomenon. These organizations require computational resources in order to support analyses and to provide platforms where the collaborators can interact. The XSEDE Community Infrastructure (XCI) group assists campuses in using their own resources and promotes the sharing of those resources in order to create collaboratories improving use of the nation's collective cyberinfrastructure. Currently XCI provides toolkits and training, and collaborates with organizations such as ACI-REF, XSEDE Campus Champions, and the Open Science Grid to identify tools and best practices that support the community. This paper discusses the progress in and barriers to developing a robust collaborative environment where computational resources can be shared.