Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to invite you to the CHPC National Meeting 2009 and 5th BELIEF Symposium to be held during the period 7-9 December2009 at the Sandton International Convention Centre. For more information and registration, visit http://www.chpcconf.co.za.

The event is hosted by the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and Bringing Europe's eLectronic Infrastructure to Expanding Frontiers
- Phase II (BELIEF II).

As one of the three pillars within the Department of Science and Technology's (DST's) national cyberinfrastructure initiative, the core mission of the CHPC is to increase the competitiveness of South Africa through promoting the adoption of high performance computing (HPC) and data technologies and tools across all sectors. In order to satisfy DST's grand vision, the CHPC attempts to foster a multi-array of vibrant and productive computational research communities alongside experimentalists. The CHPC aims to leverage its computational platforms, expertise and funding to facilitate the advancement of South Africa - from bioinformatics, engineering and astronomy to humanities, finance, and arts - in both public and private sectors.

The BELIEF-II project is funded by the European Commission through the FP7 initiative and its aim is to support the goals of e-Infrastructure projects to maximize synergies in specific application areas between research, scientific and industrial communities. The project's strategic objective is to coordinate the efficient and effective communication of results, networking and knowledge between e-Infrastructure projects and their users to promote worldwide development and exploitation.

The event is aimed at advancing research collaboration and competitiveness through an integrated South African national cyberinfrastructure.

The joint event of CHPC and BELIEF intends to explore the contributions and expectations from policy makers, research communities, ICT vendors, industries, academia and EU funded projects. Through a series of presentations and open discussion forums, both local and international stakeholders and key players will have the opportunity to jointly harness synergies, in an attempt to promote existing cyberinfrastructure activities.

The event will showcase some of the recent progress in the South African (SAn) cyberinfrastructure and its role in SA and developments in Africa. Keynote research and application results utilising the cyberinfrastructure will be illustrated, and the latest international developments will be discussed.

You are therefore encouraged to participate in this meeting, to share your knowledge, voice your opinions and provide your support in pursuit of harnessing a vibrant ecosystem in the context of DST's cyberinfrastructure intervention. It is hoped that through the three-day interactive workshop, we can fully explore how the research communities can take maximum advantage of this sizeable investment.

We encourage contributions and sharing of expertise in different areas of specialisation from delegates. Interested presenters are encouraged to download a PDF abstract guideline from http://www.chpcconf.co.za/CHPC-NM-2009-Abstract-template.pdf or email Tracy Cadle (tracy@walthers.co.za) for abstract templates in MSWord or OpenWriter. Each delegate will be allocated 20 minutes per presentation.

Students are encouraged to register for free. Full time students outside of Gauteng area can apply for Student Travel Sponsorship, the sponsorship will include travel arrangements for the student.

Researchers are encouraged to attend for a fee of R300.00 per person.

Commercial vendors and Industrial partners that would like to take part, kindly contact Mary-Jane Kgatuke (Email: mkgatuke@csir.co.za or
Tel: + 27 12 841 3968) to enquire about the special packages which includes an exhibition booth and dissemination of promotional material.

A number of workshops will be held in conjunction with the event. Information on workshops will be made available on http://www.chpcconf.co.za/index.cfm?x=workshop.

We look forward to welcoming you to this important event.

Sincerely
Organisers of CHPC National Meeting 2009