The European Grid Initiative

The EGI actors

National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) are the main actors within EGI. They are autonomous, officially-recognised bodies that ensure the operation of the grid infrastructures in their own country, and an effective and transparent representation of the needs and wishes of their scientific communities, resource providers and e-Infrastructure-related institutions. The activities of the overall EGI will be undertaken within each member state by the relevant NGI. The activities of the NGIs are not limited to the tasks that each NGI performs at national level to maintain its infrastructure, but extend to international tasks that allow the sharing of IT resources in a robust and transparent way and the support of the international application communities.

EGI.eu is the coordinating body responsible for managing EGI. Its central role is to facilitate the interaction and collaboration between NGIs, and to provide a common managerial framework for the pan-European grid infrastructure.

The EGI Council represents the top level management layer in EGI. It is made up of the NGIs, as well as other members such as the Associate Members (i.e. European institutions represented in the EIROFORUM or ESFRI) and non-voting representatives of extra-European partner grid infrastructures.

The EGI.eu director provides the organisational interface to the EGI Council, to funding and policy bodies (such as the European Commission) and to several EGI committees on the one hand, and to heads of the EGI.eu units on the other.

User communities will have representation and support mechanisms in the EGI User Forum (UF) and will have a voice in the User Forum Steering Committee (UFSC) through the Specialised Support Centres (SSC).

The EGI Middleware Coordination Board (MCB) is the EGI body that sets technical priorities and makes all decisions concerning the maintenance, support and evolution of the middleware deployed on the EGI e-Infrastructure.