The vision of the ERN is to simplify multi-campus collaborations and partnerships that advance the frontiers of research and innovation. In order to do this successfully the ERN needs to consider current university policies as well as engage with university administrations (VPRs, CIOs, General Counsel, and IRB directors) in developing a policy strategy to help us bring the vision to reality. This session will give the ERN community a chance to discuss university policies and what considerations need to be taken into account as we create new policies and procedures. What needs to be in place that allows ease of sharing knowledge, data, infrastructure, and people? Sustainability, another important discussion point, as well as compliance requirements and security concerns should also be addressed during this session. A goal of this session is to create a working group focused on CI sharing policies as well as creating content to be included in the Mid-Scale proposal.

Many smaller, mid-sized and under-resourced campuses, including MSIs, HSIs, HBCUs, and EPSCoR institutions, have compelling science research and education activities along with an awareness of the benefits associated with better access to cyberinfrastructure resources. These schools can benefit greatly from resources and expertise to augment their in-house efforts. This could include identifying, understanding, and quantifying the science drivers; understanding the cyberinfrastructure needed to support the applications; and providing both the technical and application support associated with matching the applications to the infrastructure, particularly when the required resources are outside of their campus environment. This session is focused on learning directly from this community on how best to support under-resourced academic institutions in the region, which happens to be a majority of the academic institutions within the Northeast. Because of the trusted relationship between smaller academic institutions and the regional network providers, the role of regionals as facilitator and user support for these smaller institutions within the ERN will also be explored during this session. A goal of this session is to form a working group focused on broadening the reach as well as creating content to be included in the Mid-Scale proposal.