The Canadian Advanced Network For Astronomical Research (CANFAR) will support forefront scientific
discovery by users of major Canadian astronomical surveys. CANFAR will deliver an operational system for
the delivery, processing, storage, analysis, and distribution of very large astronomical datasets. An
innovative but challenging new feature of the proposal is the development of advanced products and
services that channel the onslaught of survey data through Canadian networks to the computational grid
infrastructure (components of Compute Canada).

The changing sociology of science means that much astronomical research is done within collaborative
contexts that can be described as "virtual organizations". (These VOs are based on formal or informal
agreements about data sharing, telescope access, defined contributions by each party, areas of work, and
shared credit for discoveries.) CANFAR will initially target two specific VO's (survey teams) as prototypes to
be used to develop the necessary tools and infrastructures - one of these is associated with a Large
Program on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope designed to search for elusive objects in the outer Solar
System called "The Time Variable Sky", while the other is a multi-tiered imaging survey of the distant
Universe (the Cosmology Legacy Survey) using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The effort expended
to manage these sample VOs will be used as templates for 3 other surveys: the Next Generation Virgo
Cluster Survey (with CFHT), the Ultra-Deep CFHT Imaging Survey of the High-Redshift Universe and the
SCUBA-2 All-Sky Survey (with JCMT). Together these projects involve researchers based in 13 institutions
across Canada collaborating with more than 150 researchers based at more than 60 institutions in other
countries. Ultimately the system will support an even broader range of projects in Canada and
internationally.

CANFAR is built on a strong established foundation. The technological foundation includes telescope
facilities in Hawaii which observe and distribute data via networks; and the Science Data Archive at
Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC), which ingests astronomical data and metadata into mass
storage and database systems, and provides sophisticated modes of user access. Canada has established
a strong and enviable reputation in the world of scientific data mining and archiving; the goal of CANFAR is
to build on these past successes to enable the next generation of products and applications for scientific
data analysis.

The core team consists of the university-based Principal Investigators of the survey projects, a universityhired
development team, and a fee-for-service contractor at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics’
Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, part of the National Research Council.
The systems and infrastructure developed in this project will make sustained contributions to Canadian
science after the science projects are completed. The operation of this infrastructure is part of the in-kind
contribution from NRC. The CADC is committed to supporting and operating the new services beyond
December 2010 and extending them to support other survey teams and virtual organisations within Canada.