AbstractDistributed systems like grids support diverse models of distributed computation and need to operate large data entities in a distributed way. A significant quantity of this data are used only for a limited period of time. Caching is recognized as one of the most effective techniques to manage temporary data and collaborative cache is traditionally proposed to scale cache capabilities in distributed environments. Grid needs to manage dynamically different models of computation with different data access patterns. In this paper, we propose a basic infrastructure for the management of collaborative caches that permits to operate and control dynamically different cache mechanisms and cache schemes in grid. Beside traditional collaborative caching where the cooperation is often limited to data resolution, in our infrastructure the collaborative cache capacities are extended to operate and manage these distributed temporal data. Our proposition is composed of a reference cache model that defines four layers for the management of collaborative cache; an information model that represents the main cache elements and their activity; and a set of operations to request specific tasks to monitor, operate, and coordinate a generic collaborative cache system. Implementation issues of a prototype in Globus Toolkit 4 are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.