Conclusion and Next Steps

The purpose of this document is not to advocate in particular for the proposals contained within (although the proposals made here reflect genuinely-held convictions, rather than being straw-man arguments). The purpose is to start in earnest a conversation that is overdue, allowing the community to come to a consensus about what the internal organizational structure of Compute Canada should be, how it should make decisions, and how it should offer services to Canadian researchers and scholars.

The most important next step, then, is for you to have this discussion with colleagues locally and across the country, disagreeing vehemently initially on some points, and coming to agreement on others. Our document focuses on the organization that is Compute Canada. However, as mentioned the principles and proposals presented can be applied to any digital infrastructure organization. Furthermore, the ultimate organization or governance structure that supports the delivery of research computing support could be any number of a wide range of models. Open discussions about that model, or various options could be a valuable step forward. However, we advocate that regardless of the model it is critical that researcher needs be the first and most important consideration.

The members and regions can build a successful and coherent national platform that works the way the community wants it to, but they cannot do so before the community tells them what destination they should aim for. The Canadian research and research computing communities can do great things together. Let’s get started.

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