SoftWare InFrastructure and Technology for High Energy Physics experiments (SWIFT-HEP)

The computing requirements of the highest priority projects within the HEP programme are posing significant challenges which must be addressed head-on. The four LHC experiments (ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ALICE) recorded almost 1 exabyte of data to make groundbreaking discoveries, from the Higgs Boson to pentaquarks. Major upgrades of the LHC experiments are due to take place in the 2020s which will greatly augment their datasets, while in parallel we will see the build-up to operation of the next generation of neutrino experiments (DUNE and HyperK) with LHC-scale volumes of highly granular data.

Software development is recognised by the international community as an essential aspect to achieve the physics goals. The recent update of the European Strategy for particle physics points out that professional software engineers are needed for the future of the field and an international community is emerging around this research support area.

The goal of this proposal is two-fold. (i) The funding sought will provide a direct contribution to the international effort and allow us to shape the future direction of computing and software development in the field of particle physics. (ii) A new cross-experiment collaborative environment will be established in the UK to create a framework to address common problems in software development which will serve us for the next decade and beyond.