CHAIN-REDS is a FP7 project co-funded by the European Commission aiming at promoting and supporting technological and scientific collaboration across different e-Infrastructures established and operated in various continents, in order to define a path towards a global e-Infrastructure ecosystem that will allow Virtual Research Communities (VRCs), research groups and even single researchers to access and efficiently use worldwide distributed resources (i.e., computing, storage, data, services, tools, applications).
The challenges faced by researchers in connecting globally in the context of large scientific collaborations are still significant, but the CHAIN-REDS project and its predecessors have made great strides in addressing some of the more pressing technological aspects of these challenges.
Testimonials from stakeholders in four continents highlight the crucial role these projects had, and continue to have, in the development of a truly global digital environment, where different eInfrastructures are becoming interoperable, and where partners from developing countries are beginning to have the same opportunities as those in the traditional first world countries. Thanks to CHAIN REDS and its predecessors, many countries are increasingly able to attract their home-grown talent to work locally in their new and emerging research facilities, with growing support from their local governments.