Source: Own illustration
In the first blog post on “Digitale Hochschule NRW” (DH.NRW), we gave you a general description of what the cooperation is exactly and what it deals with. You already know that RWTH Aachen University is one of the 42 participating universities.
In this article we would like to show you to what extent the IT Center is involved and which projects it is responsible for.
ACADEMIC-GROUPWARE.NRW
The preliminary project Academic-Groupware.nrw dealt specifically with the use of Microsoft Exchange as a fully-fledged groupware system or as a central mail system including virus and spam protection via Internet Security NRW. This service can be based on the existing infrastructure of RWTH Aachen University and made available to other universities.
In addition, scaling processes for the implementation of the university’s own identity management system were developed and implemented as part of this project. The preliminary project was successfully completed.
COSCINE.NRW
Since 2018, the research data platform Coscine has been developed as an open source platform at the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University. It is used to manage research (meta)data and to allocate and provide storage capacities for this very data.
Coscine can also be used across universities due to its low-threshold access management. As part of the Coscine.nrw project, the platform is to be made available to all DH.NRW universities.
DATENSICHERUNG.NRW
The preliminary project of the same name has confirmed that all universities depend on being able to access their data reliably at all times. The difficulty is to meet these requirements as an individual university and to be able to deal with threats.
The Datensicherung.nrw project provides the framework for implementing the technical, organizational, and procedural solutions for operating a cross-university data backup system. Further information can be found on the corresponding project website.
GIT.NRW
The goal of the git.nrw project is to create a central GitLab instance for the DH.NRW universities and their cooperation partners. In this way, software development, research data management, (research) project management, and teaching can be supported across institutions. To achieve this goal, the git.nrw project aims to establish technical, organizational, and content-related prerequisites.
HPC.NRW
HPC.nrw is an HPC competence network. It combines the expertise of the large HPC centers and the consulting services of smaller centers. The network thus offers a broad-based contact point for HPC users in NRW.
To ensure basic services for universities of applied sciences and smaller sites, large centers offer uniform access for all HPC users at universities in NRW. To effectively hold this network together, a coordination office is located at the IT Center. The network’s website provides more information.
IDM.NRW
The feasibility study Federated Identity Management (FIDM) in the preliminary project has shown: There is a need for cross-university access to various services. The goal of the project Federated Identity Management.nrw (IDM.nrw) is a network of the local IdM systems of the institutions in NRW. This would allow access to the services of different universities with one account.
The services offered include E-Akte.nrw, Coscine.nrw, Sciebo, HPC.nrw, and Datensicherung.nrw. The IT Center is leading this project with the support of the consortium partners Ruhr University Bochum, Bielefeld University, University of Duisburg-Essen, and FH Aachen – University of Applied Sciences. Further information can be found on the project website.
Further Projects
In addition to all these projects, in which the IT Center acts as consortium leader, the RWTH is also involved in other projects. For example, the university is the consortium leader for the projects it-proc.nrw and HM4MINT.nrw. An overview of all cooperations including contact persons and consortium partners can be found on the DH.NRW website.
Responsible for the content of this article is Jelena Nikolić.
