Interoperable grid software to tackle malaria
Accelerating the development of drugs to treat malaria and avian flu is one potential benefit from new grid software which has just been released.
The software has been developed by OMII-Europe, a two-year European Union-funded project led by the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).
OMII-Europe provides worldwide leadership on the integration of major grid computing platforms together with the implementation of emerging open standards to facilitate benefits for the wider community. Forthcoming versions of Europe's main grid platforms such as UNICORE and gLite will incorporate software developed by OMII-Europe so that researchers can access grid computing resources with the flexibility of the Internet.
OMII-Europe was established in 2006 and the University of Southampton was appointed as the co-ordinating partner within a 16-partner project of major European, American and Chinese institutes involved in grid middleware development.
It was established to provide key software components for building e-Infrastructures within the European Research Area (ERA). The initial focus for OMII-Europe was to facilitate the development and porting of a common set of application level services to a number of major grid software distributions, and to develop tighter interoperability between those distributions.
These software components are also being adopted by a number of other European research initiatives such as WISDOM which is focused on developing drugs for malaria and other neglected and emerging diseases.
Dr Alistair Dunlop, who was instrumental in forging this collaboration, commented: "Up until now, scientists could only talk to their own networks. Our software makes it possible for them to talk across various networks and to take forward the state of the art in grid technology and increase the range of computational power available to e-scientists."
Notes for editors
For further information about OMII-Europe, please visit: http://omii-europe.org
With around 500 researchers, and 900 undergraduate students, the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton is one of the world's largest and most successful integrated research groupings, covering Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electronics, and Electrical Engineering. ECS has unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise in world-leading research, new developments and their applications.
The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship.
This is one of the country's top institutions for engineering, computer science and medicine, and home to a range of world-leading research centres, including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, and the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies.
We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning.
As one of the UK's top 10 research universities, we offer first-rate opportunities and facilities for study and research across a wide range of subjects in humanities, health, science and engineering. We have over 22,000 students, around 5000 staff, and an annual turnover in the region of £325 million.
For further information contact:
Steve Brewer, Deputy Project Manager,
Tel: 023 8059 9379, email: s.brewer@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Joyce Lewis, Communications Manager, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Tel. 023 8059 5453; email jkl2@ecs.soton.ac.uk