Revenue Generation for Science Gateways

Wouldn’t it be great if you had spare funding to pursue your own research agenda without always writing a proposal? Wouldn’t it be great if your project and team had some additional level of certainty about the steadiness of its funding? If these statements excite or are relatable to you, join us for a conversation at Gateways 2022.

Creating a path to sustainability that does not rely on commercialization is a challenge for all science gateways. The Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) routinely works with scientific software creators through sustainability training and consulting to educate and share knowledge on sustainability tactics. Some of this training has occurred through a week-long workshop called Focus Week or a virtual short offering called Jumpstarts. However, the path towards sustainability often leads to set-backs, unplanned re-routes, or ramping down efforts for a time. To truly approach sustainability requires one to have the mentality of entrepreneurial trial and error, while being supported by peers and community members as needed.

With an interest in forming a cohort of like-minded thinkers to explore science gateway sustainability, we propose an open forum discussion at Gateways 2022. The goal of the conversation will be for interested attendees to discuss past or present sustainability exploration. Through the discussion, our goal is the group will share ideas and set goals for themselves to try varied approaches as they move forward on their sustainability journey.

The open forum will consist of a round robin introduction (20 minutes total) on practical experiences in science gateway sustainability. Areas of focus in the introduction will come from the following.
- An overview of sustainability by Michael Zentner, Director for Sustainable Scientific Software at San Diego Supercomputer Center
- Experiences with sustainability training and consulting by Claire Stirm, Deputy Director of the Incubator, Science Gateways Community Institute
- Experiences with building and maintaining science gateway creator teams by Sandra Gesing, Scientific Outreach and DEI Lead at the Discovery Partners Institute

To encourage a lively discussion, we would like anyone interested in the topic to answer the following questions and give a show of hands which is fitting to their case during the introduction session (they can show hands for any of these).
- Are you participating
-- since you are generally interested in the topic?
-- to hear about concrete steps for sustainability that might fit for your project or the group you lead or are a member of?
-- to discuss a specific challenge you experience in your project/department at the moment?
- Are you interested in joining an interest group around this topic?

Following the introduction, the group will spend 40 minutes of discussion in the form of rapid, structured problem-solving activities.

We expect the open forum to generate stronger support for those approaching sustainability.We expect attendees to walk away with freshly minted action items or follow-ups. Additionally, we will support the facilitation of a follow-on meeting to discuss progress towards these action items three months after the open forum.