ESnet hosted its second national user meeting, Confab23, in October 2023, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. More than 160 attendees and speakers, representing 38 participating national laboratories and other organizations, traveled from 22 states to engage in two-plus days of meaningful conversations, idea exchange, and collaboration.

Confab23 served as both a showcase for the latest ESnet advances in new technologies and services and as a forum for other speakers to share their own innovative multi-facility approaches and projects. This year’s theme was “Co-Designing the Future of National-Scale Integrated Science and Networking,” inspired by the DOE’s Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) program and informed by the Office of Science’s (SC’s) recently released IRI Architecture Blueprint Activity final report. 

“Confab really demonstrated the power of this interconnected vision of an integrated research infrastructure and the ways in which the research communities are embracing it— and who better than ESnet, which is already working with so many Confab attendees on early IRI prototype projects, to facilitate the conversation,” commented Amber Boehnlein, associate director for computational science and technology at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. 

Highlights included:

• IRI keynote overview from Ben Brown, ASCR Facilities Division Director
• Panel of DOE Office of Science (SC) Program Managers on IRI across SC Program Offices 
• Updates on ESnet services and resources to support DOE science, including network orchestration/automation and the ESnet Testbed 
• Lightning talks by scientific researchers featuring the kind of big-data, multi-facility collaborations that IRI is intended to streamline and accelerate
• Presentations and discussion from a cross-section of facilities on the types of scientific collaborations the new IRI testbed will support and the challenges it must solve
• An analysis of recent ESnet Requirements Reviews in the context of IRI workflow patterns for scientific collaborations.

The focus on IRI provided a common lens through which attendees explored existing and future ESnet user needs and interests to meet ASCR priorities. Attendee feedback indicated they valued this unifying focus, which provided an opportunity to learn about, discuss, and plan for stronger connections between high-performance networks and scientific research.

“It was a privilege to engage with our broader science user community,” said Inder Monga, executive director of ESnet. “ESnet is not just a network; it is also a critical enabler for scientific discovery and innovation. The discussions at Confab have given us a better understanding of their evolving needs and will guide our efforts to provide world-class services and support in an IRI-driven future. We’re excited to bring everyone back together in the future to discuss our collective progress.” 

Confab25 will be held the week of April 7, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at www.es.net/confab.