A Grid Portal is problem solving environment that allows scientists to program, access and execute distributed “Grid” applications from a conventional Web Browser and other desktop tools. In one class of Grid portals, which we will call science portals, scientific domain knowledge and tools are presented to the user in terms of the application science and not in terms of complex distributed computing protocols. The goal is to allow the scientist to focus completely on the science problem at hand by making the Grid a transparent extension of the their desktop computing environment. Another class of Grid portals, which we call user portals, provides the user with direct views of Grid resources and services. These portals require the user to have a greater understanding of Grid technology than application-oriented science portals, but they often form the foundation of these more advanced tools. 

There are three projects that are closely aligned that are involved with the work on LEAD involving science portals. 

• The NCSA Alliance portal expedition which is a specific project to explore portal concepts for use in Grid environments
• The NSF Middleware Initiative for Grid Portals which now goes by the name Open Grid Computing Environments project.
• The Global Grid Forum Grid Computing Environments Research Group.  There is currently a GGF9 working document on Grid Portals.

As LEAD evolves we will be adding to this page the specific design decisions for the LEAD portal.