A Baseline of EPSCoR Research CI Capabilities

Research Cyberinfrastructure (CI, a.k.a. Research Computing and Data (RCD)) is changing at an accelerating rate, while the breadth of fields and disciplines that depend on these technologies is expanding and increasingly diverse. This poses significant challenges to academic institutions as they try to effectively assess and plan for the necessary support infrastructure to keep pace with the needs of researchers. EPSCoR jurisdictions have historically underinvested in the CI resources and services required to drive forward data and compute-intensive science.  This has created an uneven distribution and availability of CI across the nation. However, the degree of this inequality remains unclear because data is lacking on CI availability across EPSCoR jurisdictions and institutions. The 2022 EPSCoR CI workshop is working to address this by generating a unique baseline and compiling aggregate data concerning EPSCoR jurisdictions’ current CI capabilities, gaps, and priorities in EPSCoR jurisdictions. These data will improve knowledge of CI distribution and access, serving to increase discussion at local, regional, and national levels. This report presents an analysis of the 2020/21 aggregated data from 15 EPSCoR institutions that completed Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model (Schmitz, et al. 2020) assessments in 2020 and 2021. These institutions represent 11 states and U.S. territories, and include R1, R2, and other Carnegie Classifications.