CC* Planning: Delaware Research & Education Network (DEREN)

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The Delaware Research and Education Network (DEREN) project incorporates community research requirements to develop a plan for a sustainable research and education network that fosters collaboration, data sharing and new research opportunities across the State of Delaware. Delaware’s research community includes several mid-sized and under-resourced colleges and universities, including a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The vision of DEREN is to enable partnerships between research entities across the state of Delaware and beyond through coordination, training, and access to local and regional research cyberinfrastructure. The project will provide a plan for a viable and scalable structure for Delaware’s broader research community to flourish. The partnership between University of Delaware (UD) and the State of Delaware’s Department of Technology and Information (DTI) will support strong regional collaborations and their impacts to science drivers in Delaware. Prior work has been conducted to identify on campus research needs and capabilities at UD and there is a general consensus to improve access for other partnering institutions to dedicated research resources located across the state. These would be available to hospitals, research facilities, small and mid-sized under resources schools, and an HBCU. The project will also engage other Research and Education Networks (RENs) along the East Coast in understanding the community aspect of the business, cost, and revenue structure for these organizations. Such efforts have potential to aid in developing and supporting a regional strategy for operating a shared research cyberinfrastructure (RCI) to benefit researchers across the state of Delaware. The project has the potential to impact many educational institutions in Delaware through access to and management of networking and computational systems that are distributed throughout the state and region. The project planning will entail university-led workshops that focus on potential community users and their respective research and education requirements, potential participation in University of Delaware research programs, network requirements, opportunities for collaboration, and data sharing strategies between community entities. The project aims to actively involve three other pre-existing state-wide network entities from other states (Nysernet, OSHEAN, and Link Oregon). After analyzing community research requirements, UD will evaluate opportunities and associated fiscal strategies to extend powerful research and cyber infrastructure via DEREN to advance research. The project outcome would provide the framework to design the DEREN as a successful, scalable, and comprehensive community anchor network across the state. This project is funded through the collaborative efforts of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.