Research organizations interested in harnessing the immense power of Internet-connected computers to accelerate humanitarian research
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The organization is seeking proposals from research organizations interested in harnessing
the immense power of Internet-connected computers to accelerate humanitarian research. Our goal
is to support innovative efforts that will benefit most from this technology and promise to deliver
significant results on the most pressing issues facing the global community. To meet this goal,
World Community Grid plans to implement as many as five research projects per year.
Background
Grid technology joins together many individual computers, creating a large system with massive
computational power that exceeds the power of a few supercomputers. This capability can be
applied, on a global scale, to very large and complex problems for the benefit of humanity.
In 2003, the IBM Corporation was one of the sponsors of a smallpox study that took advantage of
grid computing. This study, using today's largest available supercomputers, would have taken
years to complete. With grid computing, this study was completed in less than six months and
identified 45 potential smallpox-treatment candidates.
World Community Grid: A Philanthropic Initiative
As a result of the smallpox study success, IBM sought partners to create World Community Grid as
a wholly philanthropic initiative, with the vision that it would be the world's largest public
computing grid tackling projects for the benefit of humanity. The name was chosen carefully to
represent the endeavor's reach (worldwide), its volunteer and scientific collaboration (community),
and its technical underpinnings (grid computing).
With technology and funding provided by the IBM Corporation, World Community Grid is making
grid technology available to public and not-for-profit organizations to use in humanitarian research
that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of the computer infrastructure required
in the absence of a public grid.
World Community Grid is designed as a resource for research done with a philanthropic or
humanitarian purpose and will only be available to projects conducted for public and not-for-profit
purposes. It will serve as a useful tool for the completion of a certain stage of research, hastening
the progress of projects into further phases of development. Results must be made available to the
global research community by the sponsoring research organization and remain in the public
domain.
Because projects must serve to promote human welfare directly or indirectly, it is anticipated that
projects in the following disciplines will be run on World Community Grid:.
New and existing infectious disease research: Research on cures for HIV and AIDS,
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), malaria, and others.
Genomic and disease research: Studies that seek to identify the functions of the proteins
that are coded by human genes and how they might relate to cures for common diseases.
Natural disasters and hunger: Earthquake predictions, information on improving crop
yields and livestock production, and evaluation of the supply of critical natural resources
such as water.
Environmental Research: Meteorology and severe weather prediction, pollution
remediation, climate modeling, and others.
Research that has the potential to assist economically disadvantaged communities and those in
developing countries or to provide the initial research that can open new fields of inquiry will have
priority.
Technical Requirements
Projects must meet three basic technological requirements, to ensure benefits from grid computing:
1. Projects should have a need for millions of CPU hours of computation to proceed.
However, humanitarian projects with smaller CPU hour requirements are able to apply.
2. The computer software algorithms required to accomplish the computations should be such
that they can be subdivided into many smaller independent computations.
3. If very large amounts of data are required, there should also be a way to partition the data
into sufficiently small units corresponding to the computations.
Ideally, existing application software would meet the above requirements. However, if existing
software does not already meet the required characteristics, there may be technical modifications or
alternatives that could satisfy the requirements. In order to meet the goal of opening new areas of
inquiry, World Community Grid will seek at least one project each year that has a viable research
proposal yet requires technical support to develop application software. The assessment of the
project usually will require technical discussions with World Community Grid's technical teams to
explore the possibilities and effort required to adapt the project's computational tasks to best exploit
the grid. This will ultimately be a factor in deciding whether to proceed with a particular project.
Selection Criteria
Projects must meet the following Selection Criteria:
1. Project has specifically stated goals and anticipated results and explains how the work will
significantly contribute to the eradication of human suffering or benefit humanity. World
Community Grid welcomes projects that demonstrate the potential to assist economically
disadvantaged communities and developing countries, or to provide the initial research that
can open new fields of inquiry that benefit humanity
2. Project meets grid computing technical requirements and is grid-enabled. The project shows
evidence that the project results will be accelerated by the use of grid computing technology.
3. Project has adequate funding to complete the proposed research and leverage World
Community Grid.
4. Project is not already running on another grid or supercomputer.
5. Sponsoring research organization has the capacity to complete the project and maximize the
use of the results generated through World Community Grid.
6. All information in the proposal is complete and accurate.
These criteria will be used for the first phase of proposal review.
Review Criteria
Proposals that meet all selection criteria will then be evaluated according to the following Review
Criteria:
1. How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within
its own field or across different fields?
2. What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society? Will there be a benefit for
economically disadvantaged communities or those in developing countries?
3. What impact can World Community Grid have to accelerate the research or reduce costs?
4. Is the proposed method or approach reasonable?
5. To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original
concepts?
6. Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological
understanding?
Final decisions for all applications are at the sole discretion of World Community Grid.
RFP Process
The following is the process that World Community Grid's project team will follow in reviewing
and approving proposals, as well as preliminary information on the process that will take place once
a proposal is selected.
1. Research organizations are invited to visit www.worldcommunitygrid.org and download a
copy of the Request for Proposals and the Proposal Application.
2. Once downloaded, the research organization completes the required information (including
Attachment A: Affirmation of Non-Discrimination and Patriot Act Compliance) and sends
it, via email, to rfp@worldcommunitygrid.org. Submissions should not contain confidential
information of the research organization. Once a proposal is selected for World Community
Grid, summary information will be made available on the web site.
3. In cases where similar proposals are received from different organizations, the one received
first, based on the date and time stamp of the e-mail, will receive preference, if all requirements have been met by both proposals. World Community Grid staff may also
facilitate and encourage collaboration between and among organizations submitting
complimentary proposals.
4. World Community Grid's project team will review each RFP response and pre-qualify it for
running on World Community Grid based on the six selection criteria provided above.
During this step, the project team may contact the research organization for more
information, if necessary.
5. If a proposal is complete and it is determined that the application described in the proposal
meets the six selection criteria for World Community Grid, then it will be evaluated by a
World Community Grid review committee.
6. External subject matter experts will review all qualified RFP's submitted by research
organizations on a quarterly basis. Updated information on the schedule for reviewing and
selecting proposals will be posted on www.worldcommunitygrid.org.
7. If World Community Grid accepts an application, then the World Community Grid project
team will contact the research organization to inform them that the application has been
accepted. Final decision for all application decisions are at the sole discretion of World
Community Grid.
8. Once the acceptance is mutual, World Community Grid and the research organization both
sign a Project Hosting Agreement.
9. Following the signing of the Project Hosting Agreement, World Community Grid's project
team schedules the application to run on World Community Grid and builds a project plan
with the research organization.
10. Following the conclusion of the project, the research organization will make results
produced by World Community Grid freely available to other research organizations as
provided in the Project Hosting Agreement.
11. World Community Grid will work collaboratively with research organizations to encourage
public visibility and high participation in the grid project as well as wide dissemination of
research findings and impact.
Contact Information
Please send any questions to rfp@worldcommunitygrid.org with your name, email address, and
telephone number. Additional information and FAQs are available at
www.worldcommunitygrid.org.
