Lowering the environmental impact of digital services and technologies has to become a priority for both the operation of existing digital services and the design of future digital infrastructures. Energy consumption and carbon footprint are the two most talked about environmental impacts, and indeed, digital infrastructures today contribute 3 to 4% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world, with a growth of 8% per year. In particular, the part of the networking infrastructure alone is responsible for 2 to 14% of digital impacts, according to various sources, mainly due to their electricity consumption. Digital Research Infrastructures are a fundamental tool in the development of research from design to market. Moreover, digital services are becoming a ‘+1 instrument’ to many of the thematic (i.e. scientific discipline specific) ESFRIs as well as due to the big data challenges triggered by modern scientific instruments.
GreenDIGIT will approach the problem of reducing the environmental impact of RIs from the generic conceptual point of view by addressing all major factors that define and influence the RI environmental and climate impact. This includes (i) physical digital infrastructure including datacenters and computer networks, which are the main factor of energy consumption in digital infrastructures; (ii) provider tools that allow for energy and efficiency monitoring on digital infrastructures; (iii) user tools and individual research environment that can be a strong factor of reducing energy consumption by optimal design of the scientific workflows and minimising resources usage by supporting research reproducibility and optimising research data management with impact awareness.
To address these factors, GreenDIGIT will develop the referenced architecture for future sustainable RIs that will include all factors influencing energy efficiency, environmental impact and sustainable RI operation and evolution through the whole RI lifecycle. The proposed reference architecture will provide a basis for designing RI components, defining operational models and metrics for energy and impact assessment, and developing an end-to-end optimisation model for different workloads and applications. To guarantee a take-up of the identified solutions across the stakeholders of the involved DIGIT RIs, and by other ESFRI Ris, GreenDIGIT will develop general methodologies for RI impact assessment, technical and policy recommendations for RI operators and decision makers. GreenDIGIT will develop model curricula and will deliver a set of training modules on the general and specific sustainability skills for different categories of organisational roles and actors in the RIs. The foundation of all project activities will be based on the RIs survey and landscape analysis at the beginning of the project that will align GreenDIGIT development with the existing practices and real needs of the target RIs. The described conceptual approach will allow to achieve the defined goals and objectives and deliver the expected outcomes.
Research objectives
O1: Assess status and trends of low impact computing within 4 DIGIT RIs (EGI, SLICES, SoBigData, EBRAINS) and in the broader digital service provider community of ESFRIs, to produce recommendations and roadmaps for providers for during and beyond the project.
O2: Provide reference architecture and design principles, as well as an actionable model for RIs about environmental impact assessment and monitoring, reflecting on the whole RI lifecycle and including the digital infrastructure components and their interaction with the broader environment.
O3: Develop and validate new and innovative technologies, methods, and tools for digital service providers within European Research Infrastructures through which they can reduce their energy consumptions and overall environmental impact.
O4: Develop and provide for researchers technical tools that assist them in the design, execution and sharing of environmental impact aware digital applications with reproducibility, Open Science and FAIR data management considerations. Description of objective: GreenDIGIT will provide researchers with virtual research environments and open
O5: Educate and support digital service providers in the RI communities about good practices on environmental impact conscious lifecycle management and operation of infrastructures and services.
Consortium
1. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (Coordinator)
2. Czech Education and Scientific Network, Czechia
3. GREENSPECTOR, FR
4. EGI Foundation, Netherlands
5. Technical University of Munich, Germany
6. EBRAINS, BE
7. Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
8. Spanish National Research Council, Spain
9. Mandat International, Switzerland
10. National Research Council, Italy
11. SZAMITASTECHNIKAI ES AUTOMATIZALASI KUTATOINTEZET, HU
12. University of Thessaly, Greece
13. Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Italy
14. French National Centre for Scientific Research, France
15. Sorbonne University, France
