New ICM initiatives on the Polish Map of Research Infrastructure

Treść komunikatu

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has added 104 new research infrastructures with the highest potential for scientific excellence, consolidating research capabilities in fields crucial for the development of science and the economy. In total, the Polish Map of Research Infrastructure (PMIB) now features nine initiatives involving ICM UW, including two new ones coordinated by our centre: DestinE PL and the National Open Science Infrastructure.

Most of the initiatives involving ICM are carried out in the field of digital research infrastructures. Two new initiatives have joined the existing seven projects in this area:

• National Research Infrastructure DestinE PL – linked to Destination Earth, the flagship initiative of the European Commission aimed at creating a digital twin of the Earth system. DestinE PL is designed to develop national resources, data, models, and services, integrating them with the European Destination Earth ecosystem. The infrastructure will leverage observational data, high-resolution climate and weather models, HPC resources, and AI/ML methods to enable the monitoring, simulation, and forecasting of processes within the Earth system, including climate change, extreme phenomena, and other environmental hazards.

• National Open Science Infrastructure (KION) – an infrastructure developing an integrated national open science ecosystem that connects publications, research data, and software into an interoperable system of digital research objects. KION will develop resources, services, and tools supporting FAIR-compliant data management, sharing, discovery, analysis, and reuse, as well as applying artificial intelligence methods for the integration, curation, and analysis of scientific outputs. Built upon the nationwide open science platforms developed by ICM, the infrastructure will be integrated into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ecosystem.

The new initiatives complement the digital research infrastructures that ICM has already been involved in developing:

• National Data Repository (KMD) – a universal infrastructure designed for storing, sharing, and efficiently processing large volumes of data, including in HPC, Big Data, and artificial intelligence models;
• National Cloud Infrastructure PLGrid for EOSC (PLGrid ICON) – an infrastructure developing national cloud services for science and integrating them with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC);
• National Supercomputing Infrastructure for EuroHPC – the Polish contribution to the development of the European High-Performance Computing ecosystem and the integration of national HPC resources with the EuroHPC infrastructure;
• PIONIER-LAB – National Platform for the Integration of Research Infrastructures with Innovation Ecosystems – a platform supporting the integration of research infrastructure with network and computing solutions as well as digital technologies;
• PRACE – Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe – a European initiative supporting access to advanced computing resources and fostering collaboration in the area of HPC.
• DARIAH-PL – Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities, implemented in the area of social sciences and humanities.
• OPERAS-PL – Polish infrastructure for open scientific communication for the humanities and social sciences, developed within a consortium by the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Participation in nine strategic PMIB initiatives—including serving as the lead institution for two of them—reaffirms ICM UW’s position as an HPC centre developing advanced computing applications for Earth and environmental sciences, while demonstrating strong expertise in open science and data management. Furthermore, ICM’s presence on the PMIB spans a broad spectrum of digital infrastructure: from high-performance computing, cloud systems, and artificial intelligence to solutions supporting data sharing, data reuse, and digital humanities.