The Exchange Programme to advance e-Infrastructures and Know-How (EPIKH) has recently started with funding from the European Commission's FP7. EPIKH consists of 23 partners of which 7 are from the EU and 2 in South Africa and will run for 4 years.
The strategic aims of the EPIKH project are to:
- Reinforce the impact of e-Infrastructures in scientific research defining and delivering stimulating programme of educational events, including Grid Schools and High Performance Computing courses
- Broaden the engagement in e-Science activities and collaborations both geographically and across disciplines.
These ambitious goals translate into the following specific actions:
- Spreading the knowledge about the "Grid Paradigm" to all potential users: both system administrators and application developers through an extensive training programme;
- Easing the access of the trained people to the e-Infrastructures existing in the areas of action of the project;
- Fostering the establishment of scientific collaborations among the countries/continents involved in the project.
In the case of South Africa, the SAGrid federation, along with the national cyberinfrastructure programme of Meraka (CHPC, SANREN) plays a vital role in the local activities of the EPIKH project. The first EPIKH school to be held in South Africa at the end of the year is currently being organised by SAGrid and Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). The school is composed of sections directed at various communities (see below). The dates for the school are :
- site administrators : week 47 (16 November - 20 November)
- users and application developers : week 48 and week 49 (23 November - 3 December).
- EPIKH workshop (4 December)
The school itself addresses three related aspects, divided into somewhat independant sessions. The first week is dedicated to training site administrators in advanced grid middleware and site operations procedures, in the context of SAGrid and international grid infrastructures. The other two sessions are related and aim to train in parallel on the one hand, a user base in the basic concepts and technologies behind distributed and high-performance computing in a grid environment. On the other hand, a call will go out to developers of applications which, after passing a selection phase, will be ported to the grid. At the end of the school, an open day and technical workshop will be held, to disseminate the results obtained.
Further Details
We urge any potential attendees to block of the dates of the school given below. The school will be held in Cape Town. For the respective calls and registration for the site administrator and application development sections of the school, please see
- Site administrators school :
- User and Application porting school :
For any further information, please write to
- the SAGrid coordinator Bruce Becker ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
- the EPIKH-SA contact Valeria Ardizzone ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Also, check the EPIKH website for announcements. Please let us know if you are interested and if there are any suggestions. In the meantime, be sure to block off your calendar and distribute the announcements to interested parties, especially students (undergrad and postgrad).
Important dates :
- site administration training : week 47
- users and application developers : week 48 and week 49
- closing date for registration and call for applications - to be announced.
Important links :
- GILDA t-Infrastrucutre : https://gilda.ct.infn.it
- EGEE project : http://eu-egee.org
- EPIKH project : http://www.epikh.eu
- Centre for High-Performance Computing : www.chpc.ac.za
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