NSF Co-leads the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI)
President Obama issued an executive order on July 30, 2015 creating a National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) to ensure that the United States continues its leadership in high-performance computing over the coming decades. NSF is proud to serve as one of the three lead agencies for the NSCI, working alongside the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Defense (DOD).
NSF has been a leader in high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced cyberinfrastructure more generally, for nearly four decades. NSF has the unique ability to ensure that our nation’s research computing infrastructure is guided by the problems that scientists face working at the frontiers of science and engineering, and that our investments are informed by advances in state-of-the-art technologies and groundbreaking computer science research.
By providing researchers and educators throughout the U.S. with access to a diverse, advanced cyberinfrastructure ecosystem – the hardware, software, networks and people that make advanced cyberinfrastructure possible – NSF has accelerated the pace of discovery and innovation in all fields of inquiry. This holistic and collaborative ecosystem has transformed all areas of science and engineering and society at-large.
In the new NSCI, NSF will continue to play a central role in computationally-enabled scientific advances, the broader high-performance computing ecosystem for making those scientific discoveries, and the development of a highly skilled workforce that can use these resources for the good of the nation. Included in this effort will be activities aimed at increasing the coherence between the technology base used for modeling and simulation and that used for data analytic computing; establishing a viable path forward for future HPC systems in the post-Moore’s Law era; and increasing the capacity, capability and sustainability of an enduring national HPC ecosystem.
We at NSF recognize that advancing discoveries and innovations demands a bold, sustainable, and comprehensive national strategy that is responsive to increasing computing demands, emerging technological challenges, and growing international competition.
The National Strategic Computing Initiative paves the way toward a concerted, collective effort to examine the opportunities and challenges for the future of HPC.
We look forward to working with other federal agencies, industry, academia, and the scientific community – including the CISE community – to realize a vibrant future for HPC over the next 15 years and to continue to power our nation’s ability to be the discovery and innovation engine of the world.
