In a recent Campus Technology interview, Dana Brunson, executive director for research engagement at Internet2, makes the case for closing the research cyberinfrastructure access gap as a U.S. competitiveness strategy.
Brunson points to the broader ecosystem — spanning the technology and the research computing and data (RCD) professionals who connect people to the right resources — as the foundation that enables researchers and educators to do their best work.
“U.S. research competitiveness depends on the full ecosystem: the networks, the computing resources, the data, other infrastructure, and the models and tools. It also depends on the human expertise that makes all of that work together,” Brunson said. “To me, the RCD workforce is the single highest-leverage investment campuses can make.”
In addition to supporting the RCD community, Internet2’s research enablement efforts center on connecting institutions to federally funded national resources, including ACCESS and NAIRR.
“There are researchers and students all across this country who aren’t yet leveraging the resources and technologies that could help them become the next innovators,” Brunson said. “These resources are already federally funded. If students and faculty don’t know about them, or don’t have the facilitation to support using them, that’s a loss for everyone. That’s why Internet2’s role in connecting campuses to national infrastructure is so important.”
ICYMI