Science Gateways Incubator: Software Sustainability Meets Community Needs

Abstract

The main goal of the US Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) is to serve science gateways to achieve sustainability and growth. Science gateways allow science and engineering communities to access shared data, software, computing services, instruments, educational materials, and other resources specific to their disciplines. Thus, science gateways are a subgroup of scientific software and the means for addressing software sustainability are also suitable for science gateways and vice versa, e.g., best practices for software engineering. Since science gateways are tailored to specific communities, understanding users' requirements is critical for sustainability. SGCI consists of five service areas that closely interact with each other. The Incubator acknowledges the value of business strategy to inform well-designed science gateways and offers two main types of services: individualized consultancy, tailored to specific challenges a gateway faces, and the Science Gateways Bootcamp. The cornerstone of the Bootcamp is a one-week onsite intensive workshop where participants create their own roadmap for a sustainable science gateway via sessions with experts, hands-on exercises, and group work. This paper offers an overview of the work of the Incubator and shares lessons learned from the inaugural session of the Bootcamp in April 2017.