eScience Reviewed

GridPP almost pre-dates the programme with planning beginning in early 2000 for UK involvement in the wider grid project planned for the LHC. However initial funding for GridPP did come from the scheme and is considered on of the core projects within it. As such the successes of GridPP were mentioned explicitly within the report along with the NGS as having “been highly successful, providing many users with access to more computing power than they could otherwise easily obtain”. This is not all GridPP does however and the technology and expertise developed by the project within the area of large-scale, distributed data management and analysis was also highlighted.

David Britton, GridPP's Project Leader, was heavily involved in GridPP's input into the review "This was a very impressive review across the whole UK e-Science Programme during the past decade. The report identifies many key strengths and affirms the value-for-money and the scientific impact of the programme. GridPP is delighted to have contributed and was honoured to be mentioned explicitly as a successful on-going project, which has also contributed to the impact agenda and made interdisciplinary links that extend beyond science into the social sciences."

As with many of the other projects GridPP has been active in working with the the business community and the collaborations with imense and iLexIR at Cambridge (Camtology) as well as Econophysica (mathematical models for commodity trading) at QMUL were lauded as examples of the effect academic projects could have on the wider community. Professor Dan Atkins from the University of Michigan, who chaired the review, said: "The UK must now decide whether to create the necessary combination of financial, organisational, and policy commitments to capitalise on their prior investments, and to move to the next phase of building capability, growing adoption and achieving competitive advantage."