Nordic use of PRACE Evaluation
Background
The Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC) plans to take a stronger role in facilitating future joint Nordic HPC collaboration in line with its mission to facilitate the development of high-quality e-Infrastructure solutions in areas of joint Nordic interest.
PRACE, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, offers a pan-European research infrastructure with world class computing resources and services. PRACE systems are available to scientists and researchers from academia and industry from around the world and across all disciplines through a peer review process. PRACE is established as an international not-for-profit association with seat in Brussels and has 25 member countries including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden.
Through a tiered structure, PRACE provides access to computing resources and services for large-scale scientific and engineering applications at the highest performance level. Resources from the six Tier-0 systems have up to now been provided in-kind from the four hosting countries. These hosting countries have signalled that it is unlikely that the current practice with insufficient external funding to cover the cost will be continued into the next phase after mid-2015.
The NeIC Board has therefore decided to conduct an evaluation on the Nordic participation of PRACE to investigate the added value for researchers from the Nordic countries' representation within PRACE and to constitute future Nordic participation in PRACE. The evaluation is to be seen complementary to possibly related passed and planned national evaluations that are covering the assessment of the participation in PRACE on national scopes.
Terms of Reference
Members of the Evaluation Committee
(in alphabetical order):
- Geoffrey Fox
- Alison Kennedy
- Ron Perrott
- Robert Lee Pennington (elected chair)
Timeline
| as in ToR | Real | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| August | Discuss ToR draft with NeIC Board. | 29. August | |
| September | NeIC finalizes the ToR and suggests an independent group of experts | ||
| September | Appointing the committee and handing the mandate to them | ||
| September 13th | Invitations sent | ||
| September 23rd | ToR approved and sent to committee | ||
| October 1st | NeIC provides an overview of the PRACE organization | November 6th | |
| November 1st | National stakeholders provide self-assessment | December 1st | New deadline |
| November | Evaluation by the committee | December - January | |
| January 15th | Final report submitted to the NeIC Board | January 31st | New deadline |
| February 12, 2014 | Presentation of the Final Report to the NeIC Board in Copenhagen |
Phone meetings:
- The first phone meeting had to be continuously moved or cancelled due to sickness or other non-availabilities.
- 2013-12-02
- 2013-12-18
- 2014-01-07
- 2014-01-20
Agenda Physical meeting
Time for physical meeting: 2014-01-17
Location: Radisson Blue, Skycity, Arlanda Airport
Note: the evaluation committee has decided to keep the interviews closed to guarantee the privacy of the interviewed partners. The final report of the evaluation will be a public document, though.
Dinner evening before
Ulla Winbladh [1]
Rosendalsvägen 8
+46 853489700
À la carte, 5 personer, 19:00 (Wärdshuset Ulla Winbladh) Reserved for Michaela Barth, Bokningsreferens: H7KLEGKO
Directions: From Sergels Torg near Central Station, take the tram (there is only one line in one direction 7) and get off at Nordiska museet/Vasamuseet (Stockholm) [2]
0800 - 1000 Hearing PRACE partners
30 min for each member country
- 0800 - 0830 SE: Jacko Koster, Erwin Laure (confirmed)
- 0830 - 0900 NO: Arild Halsetrønning (via phone), Hans Eide (via phone), also Bjørn Lindi (via phone)
- 0900 - 0930 DK: Rene Belsø (confirmed -> via phone)
- 0930 - 1000 FI: Per Öster, Janne Ignatius (confirmed)
1000 - 1015 Coffee break
1015 - 1245 Hearing Users Part 1
30 min each
- 1015 - 1045 Tier-0: Claudio Pica, DK, (confirmed)
- 1045 - 1115 Tier-0: Hannu Häkkinen, FI (via phone)
- 1115 - 1145 Tier-0: Mats Carlsson, NO (confirmed)
- 1145 - 1215 Tier-1: Hannu Kurki-Suonio, FI (confirmed)
- 1215 - 1245 Tier-0: Kresten Lindorff-Larsen, DK (confirmed, via phone -> apologized)
1245 - 1330 Lunch
1330 - 1430 Hearing Users Part 2
- 1330 - 1400 Tier-1: Erik Lindahl, SE (confirmed)
1410 - 1530 Hearing Enablers, Trainers
20 min each
- 1410 - 1440 Frederik Orellana, DK (confirmed -> via phone)
- 1440 - 1500 Joachim Hein, SE (confirmed, via phone)
- 1500 - 1520 Jussi Enkovaara, FI (via phone)
1520 - 1540 Coffee Break
1540 - 1610 Chair of PRACE SSC
- Ruud Kenneth (via phone)
1610 Summary Discussion
Report writing
1900 Dinner
Dinner at 5småhus in the old town: [3].
Final report
The final report was presented and approved at the NeIC Board meeting in Copenhagen on 2014-02-12. The final report (with a number correction) and the presentation are available at Public_Documents.