The Grid is a wonderful vision - UK assigns a large amount of money to it

Amsterdam 07 March 2001 From April 1st, Professor Tony Hey currently Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Southampton will join EPSRC, where he will direct the e-Science Core Programme. The e-Science programme, coordinated by UK Research Council EPSRC, will invest in new information technologies. Scientists today are faced with processing vast amounts of complex data and the Grid would enable them to do this efficiently and effectively. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the largest of the United Kingdom's seven government-funded research councils. At the Global Grid Forum in Amsterdam, Tony Hey explained the ambitious UK plans that includes GBP 69 million for Grid test beds.

In total, there is GBP 98 million (about 155 million euro) available for the e-Science programme. Part of it is for Grid test-beds, part will be used by the research councils for application specific developments. In the UK, each science area has its research council. EPSRC , for instance will spend 27 million on e-Science, the bio-informatics research council 8 million.

In the UK science budget for 2001-2002, there is GBP 5 million for the Rutherford and Daresbary labs for Grid enabling. But also there is GBP 9 million available for a new supercomputer, so no, the Grid does not make supercomputing obsolete. The Core e-Science programme that is cross-council will have GBP 15 million to spend. In addition, the DTI (the industry and technology department) will make GBP 20 million available. The latter will be matched by industry money, probably GBP 15 million.

The e-science Core Programme will develop effective business-led collaborations core programme research projects between science base, companies and national funding agencies. So companies will be involved right from the start, although no products should be expected in the beginning.

The backbone for the UK Grid is formed by SuperJanet, the research network. It will be upgraded to 20 Gbit/s next year. Currently connections are at most at 2.5 Gbit/s.

Hey sees the Grid as three layers:

  • Knowledge Grid
  • Information grid
  • Computational and Data Grid
From bottom to top there is a transformation from data via information to knowledge. Data is uninterpreted signals from sensors, for instance. When meaning is added to data, it is transformed to information. When semantics is added to information, information becomes knowledge. From top to bottom, the amount of control increases.

There are four interdisciplinary research collaborations in areas as medical imaging and safety already defined. Hey notes that the development of the Grid could be seriously hampered by the difficulty to get good Grid researchers. In the UK, for instance, a student who starts working gets GBP 28,000 salary plus GBP 10,000 'Say hello' and GBP 2,000 relocation allowance. Compare this with the GBP 9,000 of a post graduate or the GBP 38,000 of a Senior Lecturer who reaches that level after many, many years. However Tony Hey hopes the Grid will be attractive enough because of its importance to society and the interesting research. "The Grid is a wonderful vision", Hey concluded.

Ad Emmen

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