Nordic Tier-1

The Nordic Tier-1 (NT1) is an operational activity that provides research computing and data storage for the global high-energy physics community.

NT1 operates one of the 14 Tier-1 computing centres of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). WLCG is a large international e-infrastructure designed for the distributed processing and storage of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider experiments at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The Nordic Tier-1 facility is unique in being distributed across four countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

The activity operates large-scale disk and tape storage based on resources located at universities and scientific computing centres across the Nordic region. Together with high-throughput computing resources, this infrastructure enables researchers to process and analyse data and produce scientific results.

The Nordic Tier-1 is funded by partners in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and has been hosted by NordForsk since 2012. It continues the work of the Nordic Data Grid Facility (NDGF), which was hosted by NORDUnet from 2006 to 2011.

Organisation

Mandate

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nordic Tier-1 concerns the following parties:

- Sweden: The Swedish Research Council (SRC), funding party
- Finland: The Research Council of Finland (RCF), funding party
- Norway: The Research Council of Norway (RCN), funding party
- Denmark: The Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium (DeiC), funding party
- NordForsk, party

The current MoU entered into force in 2025 and will, unless extended, remain in force until 31 December 2030. An evaluation will be initiated in 2026 to inform the future direction of NT1 and may serve as the basis for a new or updated MoU for 2027 - 2030.

NT1 is financed by Funders, a ‘Funder‘ being any organisation that contributes financially to NT1. A Funder may be a Funding Party itself or an organisation that channels funding originating from a Funding Party to NT1 activities. NordForsk signs financial agreements with the Funders.

NordForsk will function as the host organisation for NT1. NordForsk will provide NT1 with necessary administrative support which includes financial administration, administration of reporting, audit support, maintaining archives, and legal support connected to this. The staff, equipment, and services needed are made accessible by NordForsk through subcontracts.

The Funding Committee for NT1 will decide on funding issues including yearly budget levels. Any Party can call for a meeting in the Funding Committee, and the committee shall meet at least once every year to review the progress of NT1 and to discuss issues that may have impact on the Funding Parties. When needed, the committee can decide on interpretations of the MoU. Such decisions must be unanimous. NordForsk will take minutes and keep a record of the minutes of the committee meetings and of other background documents. The Funding Committee shall strive for consensus, but if consensus cannot be reached, the matter shall be raised to the Director Generals of the Parties.

The Nordic LHC Computing Grid Committee (NLCG) is responsible for decisions on pledges to WLCG and technical oversight of NT1. This committee is defined in NLCG terms of reference.