The research and academic communities of South East Europe have made a big step towards joining the new era of long-term sustainable eInfrastructures in Europe, thanks to the SEE-GRID-SCI eInfrastructure for regional eScience (SEE-GRID-SCI) project, which successfully reached its end in May 2010. SEE-GRID-SCI kicked-off in May 2008 and in its two-year duration it had a catalytic effect on stimulating and empowering the regional communities in the use of the next generation regional computing & storage grid infrastructure. New scientific collaborations among user groups are now feasible with the provision of advanced capabilities to more researchers, with an emphasis on strategic groups in seismology, meteorology and environmental protection.

SEE-GRID-SCI SCI built on the achievements of its predecessor SEE-GRID-1 and SEE-GRID-2 projects through which the regional eInfrastructure was established and expanded, and new applications were developed. Thanks to SEE-GRID-SCI, the regional eInfrastructure has been further enhanced, by increasing the computing and storage resources, as well as with the inclusion of new partners from the Caucasus region. Additionally, SEE-GRID-SCI contributed to the stabilization of the National Grid Initiatives in the region, ensuring the inclusion of all participating countries in the next-generation Grid operations model, as well as the participation of the less-resourced countries of South-East Europe in European trends in e-Infrastructure. On the European level, the vision in the long term is that of National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) federated together under the umbrella of the European Grid Initiative or an equivalent, which would coordinate and oversee the operations and general Grid actions. All SEE countries have joined EGI.

The project was coordinated by GRNET and the project consortium consisted of partners from Albania (UPT), Armenia (IIAP NAS RA), Bosnia-Herzegovina (UoBL), Bulgaria (IPP-BAS), Croatia (RBI), Georgia (GRENA), FYR of Macedonia (UKIM), Hungary (SZTAKI), Moldova (RENAM), Montenegro (UoM), Romania (ICI), Serbia (UoB), Turkey (TUBITAK), as well as the European Centre of Nuclear Physics (CERN) in an advisory role. In order to ensure the necessary critical mass, thirty regional Research and Academic institutions participated in the project as third-parties to the consortium partners, and the entire project was further strengthened through the collaboration with the major Pan-European FP7 project EGEE III and other Grid projects.

SEE-GRID-SCI goes beyond the current state-of-the-art and consolidated the process of regional eInfrastructure development and exploitation. It enabled Grid adoption in crucial strata of research communities in South-East Europe, especially in the context of the regional-level applications, thus creating a strong bond of researchers across borders and allowing co-ordination of high-quality research in target research fields which benefit from eInfrastructure use.

Contact:
Ognjen Prnjat, e-mail: oprnjat AT grnet.gr, tel.: +30 210 7475683