I'd like to recommend for your attention the report "Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure" released yesterday by the National Science Foundation's Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure (http://www.cise.nsf.gov/b_ribbon/).

In development for over two years by leaders from academia and industry, this report recommends a major new initiative for NSF--$1 billion per year--to take advantage of the opportunities advances in information technology provide to meet the challenges facing science, engineering and education. It touches on many areas in which the Internet2 community is interested and active, including optical networking, end-to-end performance, international connectivity and middleware.

I expect this report to receive attention similar to the report issued by the President's Information Technology Advisory Panel (PITAC) in 1999 which resulted in National Science Foundation's current Information Technology Research program (www.itr.nsf.gov).

I have included below a few excerpts from the report but encourage you to read entire report, which can be found at: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/evnt/reports/atkins_annc_020303.htm

Excerpts from "Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through

Cyberinfrastructure"

 From page 2.23:

"The Panel's overarching finding is that a new age has dawned in scientific and engineering research, pushed by continuing progress in computing, information, and communication technology; and pulled by the expanding complexity, scope and scale of today's research challenges. The capacity of this technology has crossed thresholds that now make possible a comprehensive 'cyberinfrastructure' on which to build new types of scientific and engineering knowledge environments and organizations and to pursue research in new ways and with increased efficacy. The cost of not doing this is high, both in opportunities lost and through increasing fragmentation and balkanization of the research communities." ... "The Panel's overarching recommendation is that the National Science Foundation should establish and lead a large-scale, interagency, and internationally coordinated Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Program (ACP) to create, deploy, and apply cyber infrastructure in ways that radically empower all scientific and engineering research and allied education. We estimate (details in Section 6) that sustained new NSF funding of $1 billion per year is required to achieve critical mass and to leverage the necessary coordinated co-investment from other federal agencies, universities, industry, and international sources required to empower a revolution."

 From page 6.13:

"High-speed networks are a critical cyberinfrastructure facilitating access to the large, geographically distributed computing resources, data repositories, and digital libraries. As the commodity Internet is clearly not up to the task for high-end science and engineering applications, especially where there is a real-time element (e.g., remote instrumentation and collaboration), a high-speed research network backbone should be established and the current connections program extended to support access to this backbone as well as to provide international connections.

Sincerely,

Douglas E. Van Houweling

President & CEO

University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) 3025 Boardwalk, Suite 100 Ann Arbor, MI 48108 www.Internet2.edu 734.913.4250 (Voice) 734.913.4255 (FAX)