Nikhef is the national institute for subatomic physics in the Netherlands with ca. 250 employees of which about 120 are physicists. It is a collaboration of four universities and the funding agency FOM (Fundamental Research on Matter). The institute coordinates and supports major activities in experimental subatomic physics in the Netherlands such as the preparation of experiments at the LHC at CERN, notably ATLAS, LHCb and ALICE. The scientific programme also includes several astroparticle physics projects, in particular participation in the ANTARES neutrino telescope, the AUGER cosmic-ray observatory and the VIRGO gravitational-wave interferometer.
Grid computing R&D&D (Research and Development and Deployment) is carried out by the PDP (Physics Data Processing) group, currently numbering thirteen staff. Our primary focus is to provide the best possible computing (software and hardware) infrastructure for high-energy physics. An important secondary focus is to do the same thing, for other scientific disciplines. Together with the Dutch national computing center SARA, Nikhef houses and operates one of the Tier-1 centers for the LHC Computing Grid. This center is part of the Dutch “BiG Grid” e-science infrastructure, a 30 M€ project with Nikhef as one of the three core partners.
The PDP group contains also two R&D components: grid-computing techniques for data-intensive sciences (also non-HEP) and design and engineering of security-related grid software and policy infrastructures.
Grid computing R&D&D (Research and Development and Deployment) is carried out by the PDP (Physics Data Processing) group, currently numbering thirteen staff. Our primary focus is to provide the best possible computing (software and hardware) infrastructure for high-energy physics. An important secondary focus is to do the same thing, for other scientific disciplines. Together with the Dutch national computing center SARA, Nikhef houses and operates one of the Tier-1 centers for the LHC Computing Grid. This center is part of the Dutch “BiG Grid” e-science infrastructure, a 30 M€ project with Nikhef as one of the three core partners.
The PDP group contains also two R&D components: grid-computing techniques for data-intensive sciences (also non-HEP) and design and engineering of security-related grid software and policy infrastructures.