The Department of Energy's vision for Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) is to empower researchers to meld DOE's world-class research tools, infrastructure and user facilities seamlessly and securely in novel ways to radically accelerate discovery and innovation. This will be achieved through the seamless interoperability of research workflows, enabling researchers to gain insight from observational, experimental and simulated data. Decades of research, pilot projects, and demonstrations point to the extraordinary promise of IRI but also the intertwined technological, policy, and sociological challenges of IRI.
Initial IRI work is currently focusing on defining the structure of the IRI program, setting up the appropriate sub-committees, and partnerships with pathfinder projects. As this work evolves and funding emerges, we expect there to be opportunities for the broader community to engage. For example, the IRI Management Council expects to convene an annual meeting to bring the community together to discuss IRI goals and plans. This website describes places where we initially see opportunities to engage; this will evolve rapidly as we learn from our initial experiences.
The Path to IRI
The journey to IRI started in 2020 when ASCR convened the IRI Task Force which explored the framework required to better integrate DOE resources. It was followed by a series of activities designed to identify pain points, gather requirements, and build community engagement around the concept of IRI. The results were published in the IRI Architectural Blueprint Activity Report in 2022.
Timeline of key IRI activities, 2020-2022
Pathfinder Projects
A series of discussions with ASCR facilities and leadership put forward a set of science-focused Pathfinder Projects, which will help drive the near-term scope of IRI work by the ASCR facilities. These represent currently active projects that operate at one HPC facility, and are actively working to extend to others. Because IRI is currently unfunded and work on Pathfinder Projects is being done within the current operational scope of the collaborating facilities, the list of Pathfinder Projects is limited. As the IRI program becomes more fully staffed in the coming months, the list of active projects will expand, especially as funding becomes available.