Federated IT infrastructure

Scientific IT infrastructure is based on the interplay of basic infrastructure (technical basis of the internet), increasingly visualized, cloud-based basic functionality (storage, computing power) as well as genuinely scientific applications and data structures. Science makes the highest demands and sets standards for the necessary interaction of all levels of the IT infrastructure, as we are already familiar with from high-performance computers (HPC) and these days to be seen across a wide range of highly-specialized, data-intensive research in numerous information infrastructures for specific disciplines. The federation of information infrastructures is a highly topical subject both at a national level in the context of a national research data infrastructures and also at an international level with regard to the European cloud initiatives. It is the responsibility and business of science organizations to contribute to the success of national and supra-national networking structures by ensuring that the task of designing the contents of processes is driven by science and adheres closely to scientific practice.

Federated scientific IT infrastructures are currently covered within several contexts: in Germany on an interdisciplinary basis (NFDI) and by specific discipline (e.g. GFBIO) and as national contributions for European infrastructures (e.g. ARGO, ELIXIR, CESSDA, SHARE, DARIAH, EU-DAT, CLARIN) as well as in Europe as part of the European Cloud Initiative (European Data Infrastructure, European Open Science Cloud). Activities range from setting up commercially available, basic IT infrastructure to special, Open Source applications for specific subjects. With respect to the activities of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Joint Science Conference (GWK), RfII, the European Commission and others dealing with relevant transformation processes, the Alliance Initiative will identify those fields where there is a need for further action, and submit its own proposals for the design of such measures. The Alliance Initiative acts with the objective of initiating, preparing and supporting the communication and organizational processes of science organizations as part of the political decision-making process, thereby contributing to the establishment of governance mechanisms commensurate with science.

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