In order to put the needs of users at the heart of the UAR's concerns, the role of the COmité Scientifique et Technique des Utilisateurs (COSTU) is to maintain a strong link between the services offered and the needs of research.

The main aim of COSTU GRICAD is to help the UAR GRICAD to steer the development of the research infrastructures and services it offers in the areas of scientific computing, software development for research and research data management.

It is made up of infrastructure users who are representative of their community and who have an overall vision of the use and needs of this community in terms of digital services and infrastructures. It provides a forum for discussion between these users, the GRICAD Management Committee (CODIR) and the teams involved in the infrastructure. The members of COSTU also relay information between their research community and GRICAD.

Missions

The COSTU is consulted, at the request of the GRICAD CODIR, or makes proposals on its own initiative, on the following subjects :

• the operation of services, platforms and support, and feedback on user needs ;
• Prospects in terms of future projects, equipment acquisition and deployment ;
• Strategic guidelines for the development or deployment of services and infrastructures managed by GRICAD.

Composition

The composition of COSTU aims to be representative of the scientific communities, and is based on the research clusters of the Université Grenoble Alpes. COSTU is made up of researchers, lecturers and engineers. It brings together active users of services and infrastructures who are representative of their community, working in pairs or trios to ensure that they are present at meetings and have a diversity of points of view for the validation of projects giving access to our services. It is set up by co-option and each member commits to a renewable 2-year term of office.