GridPP4: The UK Grid for Particle Physics

This proposal, submitted in response to the 2009 invitation from STFC, aims to provide and operate a computing Grid for the exploitation of LHC data in the UK. The success of the current GridPP Collaboration will be built upon, and the UK's response to production of LHC data in the period April 2011 to March 2015 will be to ensure that there is a sustainable infrastructure providing 'Computing in the LHC era' We propose to operate a Grid as the main mechanism for delivering very large-scale computational resources to the UK particle physics community. This foundation will underpin the success and increase the discovery potential of UK physicists. We will operate a production-quality Grid, delivering robustness, scale and functionality. The proposal is fully integrated with international projects and we must exploit the opportunity to capitalise on the UK leadership already established in several areas. The Particle Physics Grid will form a central part of the UK National Grid Infrastructure (NGI) that will be integrated with the European Grid Initiative (EGI) and which will inter-operate with Grids in the United States and elsewhere. The project will be managed across various domains and will deliver the UK's commitment to the worldwide LHC Computing Grid (wLCG) and ensure that worldwide activities directly benefit the UK. By 2015, the UK Grid infrastructure will have expanded in size to 40,000 cores, with more than 60 PetaBytes of storage. This will enable the UK to exploit, in an internationally competitive way, the unique physics potential of the LHC. A total request is made for £27.8m for a four year GridPP4 project starting in April 2011.