MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING Draft Vers.2 Rev.3

for Collaboration in the Production Service of the GEANT4 Software

between the laboratories, experiments and national organisations listed below:

BNL(?), CERN, ESA, DESY(?), DUBNA(?), FNAL(?), KEK, INFN, IN2P3(?), SLAC, TRIUMF

ALICE, ATLAS, BABAR, CMS, COMPASS(?), LHCB, STAR(?)

(here-after called "the parties").

Preamble

The GEANT4 software has been developed by a world-wide collaboration of about 100 scientists from over 40 institutions and laboratories participating in more than 10 experiments in Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States.

The Geant4 detector simulation toolkit has been designed for the next generation of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments, with primary requirements from the LHC, the CP violation and heavy ion experiments.

Geant4 exploits advanced software engineering techniques and Object Oriented technology to improve the validation of physics results and in the same time to make possible the distributed software design and development in the world-wide collaboration. Fifteen specialised working groups are responsible for fields as divers as physics, geometrical modelling, visualisation, event generation and user interfaces.

The GEANT4 project was proposed to and approved by the CERN Detector Research Development Committee at the end of 1994 as the R&D project RD44. From 1995 to its completion in 1998 the project has reported to the CERN Large Hadron Collider Committee. It has met all the required milestones. A first prototype was delivered at the end of 1995, the first alpha version was released in spring 1997, and the first beta version at mid-1998. The first production version is scheduled by the end of 1998.

With the release of the first production version the RD44 project will have met its goals and will terminate. A formal collaboration is needed to address the production phase.

Article 1: Purpose of this MoU

The GEANT4 toolkit has been produced by managing the process of distributed software development in order to exploit the expertise and contributions of scientists regardless their geographical locations.

The purpose of this MoU is to formalise the creation of a GEANT4 collaboration to define the distribution of the management, support, and future development of the GEANT4 software as from the release of the first production version.

The following articles will define:

the GEANT4 production service, the user support, and their scope,
the contributions to the GEANT4 collaboration,
the structure of the GEANT4 collaboration.

Article 2: The production service and user support

The GEANT4 code and documentation maintenance, including the future technical development, are defined as the "GEANT4 production service".

The provision of help and analysis of code-related problems, the consultancy, and the enhancement requests (or the investigation of anomalous results) are defined as the "GEANT4 user support".

Documentation-related help and reports of code-related problems will be managed via automated web interfaces.

Consultancy can be provided via human interface at discretion of each contributing parties of the GEANT4 collaboration.

Enhancements requests and problems investigation will be formally managed by the adequate bodies as defined in Article 4.

The scope of the production service and of the user support is limited to the parties contributing to the GEANT4 collaboration.

In addition, institutes and universities whose contributions are below the threshold defined in Article 4 will be represented by a common and dedicated representative in the management of the collaboration, so that they can be within the scope of the production service.

For laboratories, experiments and non-HEP communities whose contributions are below the threshold defined in Article 4, the source code, libraries and documentation of the software will be available, while the production service and user support will be on a best effort basis.

Article 3: Contributions and parties to the collaboration

Resources:

Experiments, institutes, laboratories and individuals forming the GEANT4 collaboration can provide resources in form of expertise, manpower or money to perform maintenance, user support and development of the GEANT4 software.

Resources are measured in Contribution Units (CU).

Manpower is measured converting one FTE into one CU.

Individuals acknowledged by the management of the collaboration to be expert of one or more GEANT4 domains will be counted as one CU and grouped for the purpose of representation in the boards defined in Article 4.

Money is converted into number of CUs using the annual average salary in each funding agency as one CU for the purpose of representation in the boards defined in Article 4.

Responsibilities:

The resources contributed to the GEANT4 collaboration effort will share the tasks of maintenance and user support for the GEANT4 domains, the coverage of key roles and activities (such as program librarian and documentation manager), and the development and support of individual work packages.

The responsibility for the domains will be assigned to working groups, like the ones defined in the RD44 project, for which most of the manpower is provided by the institutions through the experiments.

The responsibility to cover computing-related roles and activities will be assumed by laboratories’ resources.

Benefits and obligations:

All parties participating to the GEANT4 collaboration, by contributing as specified above, are represented in the management of the GEANT4 collaboration.

All parties contributing to the GEANT4 collaboration will benefit from the overall service provided by the other contributors.

The necessary resources for travel to meetings as well as for software development tools are provided by the parties or institutes of the collaborators.

Article 4: The GEANT4 collaboration structure

The structure of the GEANT4 collaboration will be formed by the following bodies:

The Collaboration Board (CB)
The Technical Steering Board (TSB)
The Working Groups.

Collaboration Board:

The CB has the tasks to manage the resources and monitor the responsibilities defined above, including the participation of new parties to the collaboration.

The CB is also responsible for any proposal for evolution, as well as extensions, of this MoU.

The CB elects its Chairperson and appoints the Spokesperson of the collaboration, who is the TSB Chair. The duration of the CB Chairperson’s mandate is 2 years.

Each laboratory, experiment, institute or group signing this MoU and contributing to the collaboration with at least 2 CUs, computed as in Article 3, has one representative in the CB.

The CB meets about twice a year.

Technical Steering Board:

The TSB is the forum where technical matters (software and physics) and further developments are discussed, prioritised, and decided.

It has the tasks to manage the production service and the user support.

The TSB is chaired by the Spokesperson of the collaboration, who reports to the Collaboration Board. The duration of the Spokesperson’s mandate is 2 years.

Each laboratory, experiment or institute signing this MoU and contributing to the collaboration with at least 2 CUs, computed as in Article 3, as well as each working group, has one representative in the TSB.

The TSB meets about 6 times a year.

Working Groups:

The Working Groups tasks are assigned by the TSB. Their co-ordinators are selected within the TSB for a renewable two-year period.

The Working Groups perform the work necessary in each GEANT4 domain and perform activities such as QA, distribution of software, documentation, tutorials, testing, and release co-ordination.

The Working Groups co-ordinators are initially selected among the current RD44 working group co-ordinators of the GEANT4 domains and activities.

The decision taking mechanism in the collaboration is defined by a simple majority of votes both in the CB and in the TSB.

Article 5: Duration of this MoU

The initial period of validity of this MoU is 2 years. It is subject to tacit renewal in two-year steps.

Amendments will be discussed in the Collaboration Board.

Fig.1: The collaboration structure. Read thin arrows as "appoint" and thick arrows as "reports to".

Resources:

The laboratories listed below can contribute with collaborators who are not attached to any of the experiments appearing as parties of the collaboration, as well as with physicists working in experiments. Note: ESA represents the ESA-sponsored space effects consortium, including ESA, DERA, and UoS.

BNL(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

CERN 3.0 CUs J.Apostolakis, G.Folger, S.Giani.

ESA 2.0 CUs A.Forti, F.Lei, P.Nieminen, P.Truscott.

DESY(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

DUBNA(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

FNAL(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

KEK n CUs and list of collaborators

INFN n CUs and list of collaborators

IN2P3(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

SLAC n CUs and list of collaborators

TRIUMF n CUs and list of collaborators

The collaborators whose names appear in the list associated to the experiments below, agree to be represented by the signature of the corresponding experiment’s representative. Their commitment is intended to be considered as part of their institute’s contribution to the corresponding experiment.

ALICE 2.0 CUs N.Ameline, V.Berejnoi, I.Hrivnacova.

ATLAS n CUs and list of collaborators

BABAR n CUs and list of collaborators

CMS 5.0 CUs P.Arce, S.Banerjee, F.Behner, H.Fesefeld, I.Gonzalez, A.Heikkinen, M.Maire,

J.Marco, L.Urban, H.P.Wellisch.

COMPASS n CUs and list of collaborators

LHCB n CUs and list of collaborators

STAR(?) n CUs and list of collaborators

Responsibilities by Parties Matrix:

Run&Events

Tracking

Particles

Geometry&Transport ALICE (V.Berejnoi); CERN (J.Apostolakis, S.Giani)

Processes&Materials

Electromagnetic Physics CMS (M.Maire, L.Urban); ESA (A.Forti, P.Nieminen)

Hadronic Physics ALICE (N.Ameline); CMS (H.Fesefeld, A.Heikkinen, H.P.Wellisch);

ESA (F.Lei, P.Truscott)

Detector Response

User and Category Interfaces CMS (S.Banerjee)

Visualisation

Testing and Quality Assurance ALICE (I.Hrivnacova); CMS (P.Arce, F.Behner, I.Gonzalez, J.Marco)

Software management CERN (G.Folger)

Documentation management

Collaboration Board members:

CERN IT Division Leader.......................: J.May or M.Delfino

ESA To be announced.........................: Will be appointed by mid-November

KEK .....................................................................

SLAC ...................................................................

TRIUMF................................................................

..............................................................................................................

ALICE Computing Co-ordinator.............: K.Safarik (confirmation on 3^rd week November)

ATLAS..................................................................

BABAR .................................................................

CMS Computing Co-ordinator .............: M.Pimia

................................................................................................................

Technical Steering Board members:

CERN IT/ASD Group Leader.................: D.Jacobs

ESA To be announced..........................: Will be appointed by mid-November

KEK ...........................................................................

SLAC .........................................................................

TRIUMF .....................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

ALICE IFVE Representative....................: V.Berejnoi (confirmation on 3^rd week November)

ATLAS .......................................................................

BABAR .......................................................................

CMS ExRD44 EB Representative..........: F.Behner

......................................................................................................................

Signatures:

CERN Director of Research ..................: L.Foa’

ESA To be announced........................: Will be communicated by mid-November

KEK ...........................................................:

SLAC .........................................................:

TRIUMF .....................................................:

..............................................................................................

ALICE SP or Fin.Head or Chairman.... : J. Schukraft or H.DeGroot or E.Quercigh (3^rd week November)

ATLAS .......................................................:

BABAR ......................................................:

CMS Head of Finance ........................: D.Blechschmidt

................................................................................................