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PDT:PDT:Q&A

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Questions and Answers

What are EGI.eu policies?

EGI.eu policies are clear, formal and mandatory statements or positions adopted by the EGI.eu governance bodies for issues relevant to the EGI community. Our policies cover a wide range of issues, starting from long-term strategic cooperation with other e-infrastructure providers, to specific problems affecting our user community. EGI.eu policies are the direct, strategic link between the EGI.eu mission – to ensure a long-term, sustainable grid infrastructure available to all European scientists and their international collaborators and its daily activities in grid operations, software quality, security and user communities. Policies can be developed internally by policy groups or in collaboration with external partners.

Why are EGI.eu policies important?

Providing guidance

Policies define EGI.eu’s key activities. They ensure consistency, fairness and minimise potential sources of litigation. Policies provide strategic guidance to decision makers on how to handle issues as they arise and give direction to staff on their daily practices.

Improving decisions

Our policies are grounded on established policy tools such as the use of research, analysis and evaluation. This leads to well-balanced documents that address the specific needs of decision makers and staff alike. EGI.eu ensures that all stakeholders and partners have access to the policies to maximise the benefits to managerial and decision making processes.

Clarifying roles and responsibilities

Well-defined policies allow all actors - NGIs, EIROs, internal and external policy groups - to understand their roles and responsibilities within predefined limits. Our policies eliminate common misunderstandings and clarify the stakeholder’s responsibilities, as well as their obligations towards the community.

Managing risks

Policies allow us to manage risks, anticipate problems and prevent costly mistakes. In that sense, policies act as a roadmap where travel information is highlighted to prevent sidetracking from the ideal route. The successful implementation of EGI.eu policies within a well defined strategic framework will contribute to the main goal of the EGI.eu and European Grid community in general.

What are EGI.eu's policy development principles?

Our policy development process rests on the following fundamental principles:

Openness

Policy development is open to all stakeholders and actors within EGI community and follows an established participatory process of collaboration. Interested parties concerned with the EGI.eu policy development are welcome to contact the relevant policy group and in agreement with them take part in their policy discussions.

Transparency

The process is transparent. Policy discussions and policy papers are archived and available through the EGI.eu document repository to all interested parties and stakeholders.

Consensus

Whenever possible, policy document approval will be based on consensus.


What is an EGI.eu policy group?

A policy group is an internal EGI.eu body created to define policies and procedures within a specific functional area (technology, operations, user community, policy and administration). They are responsible for developing EGI.eu’s strategic and operational policy framework and, thus, for ensuring the stability and availability of a European generic e-Infrastructure. Each policy group has well-defined responsibilities, composition and operational procedures. It is chaired by an elected or appointed member of the community who is an acknowledged expert in the appropriate subject area. The chair reports the progress of the group’s work to the EGI.eu management.

How do policy groups work?

EGI.eu is keen to involve all relevant stakeholders in the policy development process. In practice, this means that we will ensure that all relevant parties, especially those affected by specific policies, have the opportunity to be part of policy discussions, review draft proposals and provide their input during the policy making process. The purpose, composition and operational procedures of EGI.eu policy groups are defined by Terms of Reference (TOR). The policy groups operate upon transparency, accountability, openness and participatory principles. Policies are developed and defined through a bottom-up approach and consensus-based decision making. The policy discussions are held during regular face-to-face meetings, phone/video conferences or via the Group mailing list.


Why are external collaborations important?

One of the main goals of EGI.eu is to bring European distributed computing initiatives into an integrated e-Infrastructure that is able to seamlessly peer with equivalent e-Infrastructures around the world. This ambitious aim requires the close support of external partners, outside the EGI community which are equally committed to the development of e-Infrastructures. For the sustainable operation of EGI, it is crucial to interact with technology and infrastructure providers, as well as with our user communities to drive the evolution of our services. What is the EGI.eu policy on external collaborations? To nurture such collaborations, EGI.eu needs to establish and formalise agreements with relevant partners on the European and global level. Each external collaboration is formalised via a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), i.e., a signed document written to confirm and define the framework of collaboration between EGI.eu and individual partners. The EGI.eu recognises MOUs as tools to open wide and long-term activity and cooperation with partners. Such collaborations will ultimately bring visible benefits to scientists and researchers. In addition, external collaborations will be formalised through membership and participation in international policy bodies.

Who are our partners?

The EGI.eu is working to establish collaborations with external partners in the following categories:

  • Technology providers
  • European and International e-Infrastructure providers
  • Dissemination/coordination projects
    • e-Science Talk
  • International policy bodies
  • Virtual research communities

We will publish details on individual terms of collaboration as we sign agreements with the different partners.