Science gateways, also known as web portals or virtual research environments are a fundamental part of today’s research landscape. Beginning in 2013, more users accessed XSEDE resources via gateways than they did from the command line. However, despite the presence of gateways for many years, development of these environments is often done with an ad hoc process, limiting success, resource efficiency, and long-term impact. Developers are often unaware that others have solved similar challenges before, and they do not know where to turn for advice or expertise. Without knowledge of what's possible, projects waste money and time implementing the most basic functions rather than the value-added features for their unique audience. Critically also many gateway efforts fail. Some fail early by not understanding how to build communities of users; others fail later by not developing plans for sustainability.
The Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI,
http://www.sciencegateways.org) is the first implementation-phase software institute to be awarded through NSF’s Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2) program. SGCI has been designed as a service organization to address challenges by offering services to and building community among the research communities developing gateways. The Institute’s five-component design is the result of several years of studies, including many focus groups and a 5,000-person survey of the research community. This BOF will provide an overview of SGCI’s offerings and solicit feedback on additional services the community would like to see.