SLICES-Sustainability: Large-Scale Computing & Communication Infrastructure

SLICES stands for Scientific Large-Scale Infrastructure for Computing and Communication Experimental Studies.

Building Sustainable Research Infrastructures Across Europe

SLICES-Sustainability is part of an initiative led by the German Research Foundation that promotes the sustainable operation of research infrastructures (RIs). The initiative aims to extend the lifespan of existing RIs and reduce their environmental impact. In the project, researchers develop a technical and operational framework for the German RI SLICES-DE. They enhance the sustainability of the current testbed landscape by providing a shared experimental platform and software stack for research in information and communication technology. This approach avoids redundant development of experiment frameworks, simplifies maintenance of testbeds across multiple German sites and makes existing resources available to both the German and – via SLICES-RI – European research communities.

Since 2021, SLICES-RI has been one of three digital research infrastructures listed in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. All three RIs follow long-term strategies, with planned lifespans of ten years or more. Unlike the other two digital RIs, which provide digital services for various scientific disciplines, SLICES focuses on ICT itself and establishes itself as a European reference platform for experimentally driven ICT research.

ICT has become the ubiquitous and critical backbone of modern society: every industry and individual today relies on interconnected computers that communicate to deliver pervasive services. Society and the economy therefore depend fundamentally on ICT. The emerging SLICES-RI will support European research in ICT and related fields. Partners from Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland decided to establish a European Research Infrastructure Consortium to manage SLICES-RI as a legal entity.

SLICES in Germany

Currently, many German research teams operate their own ICT RIs. They mostly run these as separate, independent testbeds and do not coordinate nationally or internationally. On 8 July 2025, German Research Minister Dorothee Bär announced that SLICES-DE would be one of nine large-scale research infrastructures Germany plans to build. SLICES-DE will bring together the German ICT community and create a high-performance national platform across multiple sites that integrates existing testbeds in Germany. At the same time, stakeholders align the platform's development closely with the European SLICES-RI to establish a strong European foundation for future ICT research.