GridCoord d 1

Funding Summary

In every country the existing relationships, structures, and processes define how a particular research domain is funded. Finding out accurate amounts of public funding exclusively going into Grid research is a lengthy and difficult task because in many countries the allocated funding covers several grid-related activities spanning over different periods in time. Therefore, the quoted numbers are indicative estimates, as the exact boundary conditions cannot be fully traced.

The development of appropriate mechanisms for the gathering and sharing of relevant information across all funding levels inside the countries is suggested. The establishment of effective communication channels to support the transfer of information amongst not only amongst funding agencies, but also amongst those involved in technical Grid developments is necessary to arrive at a better use of the considerable available funds. The avoidance of “reinventing the wheel” whilst nurturing “best of breed” developments is central to the early implementation of an effective and commercially viable Grid infrastructure. In all of this, the need to balance competitive developments against the advantages of shared programmes of work is recognised.

Austria

Two ministries are responsible for funding of Grid-related projects. BMBWK supports research projects submitted by universities, e.g. Austrian Grid, and BMVIT (Federal Ministry of Traffic, Innovation and Technology) non-university research projects. Each proposal for a larger project has to be accepted by the Austrian Council of Research and Technology. For the first phase of the Austrian Grid a budget of 2,7 M€ is allocated by the BM:BWK.

France

The researchers (Universities, CNRS and INRIA) are on permanent civil servant positions, and their salaries are paid by the government, independently of the specific projects they are working on. The funding for Grid research mainly comes the Ministry for Research and Technologies. A rough estimate for the funding for Grid research over the period 2000-2005 is 160 M€.

It should be noted that the funding system is being deeply reshaped, with the creation in February 2005 of the National Agency for Research (ANR, according its French acronym), which is essentially meant to be a French adaptation of the US NSF. This central agency is planned to become the unique source of support for all the public programmes as described in detail in the annex.

Germany

Before 2005, there was no coherent national funding strategy on Grid Computing. Several research projects, most prominently Unicore, were funded by the “Software Systems Department” of the German Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF). Additional funding came through the German Research Network (DFN Verein) which itself is funded through BMBF’s “Internet Department”. Most of the DFN projects were targeted at enhancing wide area network protocols (B-WIN, G-WIN, X-WIN)infrastructure and protocols for the specific needs in of the Grid. Additionally, DFN supported studies and software developments for Grid applications. On a regional scale, some state governments supported projects aiming at the utilization of distributed computing equipment. Additional funding came from some major German science organisations like FhG (for their Fraunhofer RResource Grid) or HGF (for the GridKa competence center), which are also funded through BMBF. However, this money is not generally available for partners that are extern to FhG or HGF. Only recently the funding regime was slightly relaxed to allow for a better cooperation between the big science organizations (mainly HGF) and universities. From 2005 on, the funding and governance of national Grid projects will became more focussed in Germany.: A steering committee for the D-Grid projects will be established that checks for coherence among the various application-driven and the middleware-driven projects. The now starting D-Grid projects will be funded by he BMBF with 100 M€ for 4 years.

Hungary

The National Office for Research and Technology (NKTH) is responsible for implementing the government’s science and technology policy and is the main body funding Grid related projects. The amount is around 2 M€.

Italy

Grid projects are funded in parallel either by Research Institutions like INFN or by R&D programmes like FIRB and PON, the allocations coming from the MIUR. The funding for FIRB Grid.it (2003-2005) is 8.1 M€. The funding for the PON SPACI and infrastructure for e-Science projects (2003-2005) is 4.8 M€. The total INFN Grid funding (2000-2006) is 29,4 M€.

The Netherlands

Public funding of Grid research in the Netherlands is relatively centralised. The principal source of funding is directly from government ministries. The Resolution for Grant Investment in Knowledge Infrastructure (Bsik) is a collective initiative of several Dutch Ministries. The goal of the Bsik grants is to bolster the research capacity and applicable knowledge in the Netherlands in five categories, one of which is Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Bsik has allocated 20 M€ to the VL-e project, 52 M€ to the LOFAR project and 40 M€ to the GigaPort project. The Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) provides funding through the independent Netherlands National Computer Facilities Foundation (NCF). In the period 2004–2006, NCF will invest of the order of 2,8 M€ in scientific grid infrastructure.

Poland

The main funding body is the Ministry of Science Research and Information Technology (MNII), formerly State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN). The total funding for the Progress, SGI Grid and Vlab projects amounts to 9,1 M€.

Spain

Spanish-funded research is instrumented around the National Research Plan (NRP), whose objective is to foster research in all areas of knowledge, with special attention to those deemed to bring more social advantages. However, research related to the development of information society and the application of information technologies to different research areas are identified as key goals.

Spanish public funds for research in Computer Science and related areas are not made available through councils or research agencies, but directly by the Ministries. Co-ordination between all ministries with initiatives in R+D is performed by the Commission for the Science and Technology (CICYT), which takes care of planning and monitoring the National Research Plan (NRP). Funding for research is mainly provided by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Industry. Within them, most research related to Grid activities are managed by the State Secretariat for Scientific and Technological Policies (at the MEC) and the State Secretariat for the Development of the Information Society (at the MIN). A rough estimate of the funding (2004-2007) is 3,4 M€.

In addition to the central government, the seventeen autonomous regions Spain is divided into can set up their own research, innovation, and funding plans, using part of the budget given back to the regions by the central government.

Sweden

There is a strong Grid research community in Sweden, but there is so far no comprehensive national funding programme specifically for Grid, and the attitudes of the various funding bodies tend to be optimistic but cautious and the responsibility is delegated to existing organizations with funding in the HPC and general computing area. Current funding, estimated at 3,4 M€, comes from the Swedish Research Council, the KA Wallenberg Foundation and Vinnova.

UK

The e-Science programme was started in 2001 and over a five year period will receive a total OST investment in e-Science of £213m. The programme has seen significant industrial commitment, from major companies ranging from engineering through to the pharmaceutical sector. In addition, funding was provided for future high performance computing services for EPSRC and other Research Councils, ensuring existing and future national UK high performance computing services will be available over the Grid.

Summary

The following chart is a summary of the funding information for the years 2002 to 2006 collected from the provided input. The numbers are only only very crude approximations, as in some cases the boundary conditions (timing, target research area, appropriation cycles, specific allocations for research, etc.) are not exactly defined. However, it can be said that the surveyed MS spend in total between 100-150 M€ annually for funding Grid technologies