GridPP4+ Birmingham Staff Grant

This proposal, submitted in response to the 2014 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 2015 to March 2016 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 increasingly be integrated with national and international initiatives.

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 50,000 cores, with more than 30 PetaBytes of storage. This will enable the UK to exploit, in an internationally competitive way, the unique physics potential of the LHC.

GridPP's knowledge exchange activities fall into two main areas: firstly, those aimed at other academic disciplines, and secondly, business and industry. GridPP has a strong outreach programme to a public and academic audience, and intends to continue this in GridPP4+. The Dissemination Officer will organise GridPP's presence at conferences and events. This includes booking and manning booths, arranging backdrops, material, posters, screens, and rotas where appropriate. Examples of events that we have attended include The British Science Festival, The Royal Society Summer Exhibition, the British Science Association Science Communication Conference and Meet The Scientist at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. GridPP has developed an extensive website that is central to project communications. The Dissemination Officer will be responsible for producing news items for the website and drafting GridPP press releases. We have had broad coverage from these in the past, including many national newspapers and online publications.

Additional activities will include producing GridPP material, such as leaflets, posters, t-shirts, bags and magic cubes. We have found these very valuable in raising GridPP's and LHC's profile at minimal cost. The Dissemination Officer will also promote outreach training for members of the collaboration, will identify GridPP staff who have specific expertise in this area and will arrange occasional GridPP events, such as the Tier-1 open day.

On KE, our initial work has proved that GridPP's technology can be of use across a range of disciplines and sectors, and we plan to continue this work during GridPP4+. The objectives of this program will be to improve awareness of the technologies developed by GridPP and its partners in academia and industry, and hence facilitate the increase in use of these technologies within new areas.