University of North Carolina at Charlotte – Campus CyberInfrastructure Plan - 2020

The purpose of this Cyberinfrastructure Plan (CI Plan) is to document the current capabilities, strategy and plans for cyberinfrastructure at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). The CI Plan is a required document for responses to certain National Science Foundation solicitations. Moreover creating, implementing and updating cyberinfrastructure plans are critical to enabling research and advanced education in a forward thinking research university.

UNC Charlotte is committed to building on its strong research and teaching capabilities with a goal of joining the elite ranks of R1 research university as defined by the Carnegie Classification and has established an ‘R1 Commission’ to build a roadmap to achieve that goal. Robust cyberinfrastructure plans are critical to that goal. UNC Charlotte has also recently consolidated and streamlined the delivery of all information technology services including research and academic computing into one organization called OneIT. The document is reviewed and approved by the University Chief Information Officer and Vice Chancellor for OneIT.

For the purposes of the CI Plan, we will define cyberinfrastructure as the computing, communication and security infrastructure required to support advanced research and training in science, social science and engineering disciplines beyond the capabilities required for office productivity, remote and automated learning and administrative functions of the University. To be clear, for cyberinfrastructure to be productive and secure, a key requirement is to be closely integrated with and maximally leveraging the broader IT infrastructure and services of the University.

Further, this document primarily focuses on the cyberinfrastructure, which supports multiple colleges and departments within the University. Future versions of the document may incorporate key department level infrastructure.