The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spearheading an effort to develop middleware routines that will give users access across the Internet to scientific instruments such as telescopes. The hope is for scientists and researchers to share data, instruments, and laboratories more effectively with colleagues.
Leading the NSF Middleware Initiative is the GRIDS (Grids Research Integration Deployment and Support) Center and a group formed by the Internet2 consortium. NMIfunded projects promote sharing of resources such as telescopes, supercomputing systems, linear accelerators, as well as databases, directories, or calendars.
The GRIDS center, a partnership of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and several other Universities, will work with UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development) Internet2 to design, coordinate, and distribute middleware services to research labs and universities across the U.S.
