"NYSGrid and OSG share similar goals aimed at providing researchers with access to more resources than they could afford individually", stated Christine Haile, chair of NYSGrid's steering committee. "This partnership will further inter-Grid interactions and contribute to the evolution of our shared distributed infrastructures."

Under the MOU, the partnership will provide opportunistic access by OSG virtual organisations (VO) to NYSGrid resources, as well as support for use of the OSG software stack on NYSGrid computing and storage sites. NYSGrid and OSG will collaborate on mutually beneficial technical projects and will meet annually to discuss the partnership and its benefit to researchers.

"With its reach across New York State, NYSGrid brings a number of strong research institutions and resources to OSG", stated Ruth Pordes, OSG executive director. "This is a constructive step in creating an interoperable system for scientific research that spans the globe."

Nineteen colleges and universities are currently members of NYSGrid; many of these have contributed computational resources to the Grid computing infrastructure and are testing applications. Formed in 2006, NYSGrid became an initiative of NYSERNet, provider of networking and communications infrastructure throughout New York State, in 2007.