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BoF: VREs
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Keith G Jeffery & Helen Glaves
Agenda
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 Tour de Table (Keith Jeffery)
 Introduction to the meeting and its purpose
(Keith Jeffery)
 Existing Draft Case Statement (Helen
Glaves)
 Discussion (moderator Keith Jeffery)
 Conclusions and Next Steps (Helen Glaves)
Tour de Table
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Introduction
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Rationale
 Confusion
 Need agreed-upon concepts and definitions
 Requirement
 Researchers demanding ‘workbench’ to cover all
their requirements
 Timeliness
 VRE development projects underway
 http://www.vre4eic.eu/related-projects
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Virtual Research Environment (VRE)
A VRE or virtual laboratory is an online system helping
researchers collaborate.
 Features usually include:
 Collaboration support (Web forums and wikis)
 Document hosting
 Discipline-specific tools, such as data analysis,
visualisation, or simulation management
 May include publication management and teaching tools
such as presentations and slides
 Important in fields where research is primarily carried
out in teams spanning institutions and even countries
The ability to easily share information and research
results is valuable. (Wikipedia)
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VREs
 Becoming of great interest in all regions where
research data is being used actively.
 Emerging European model:
 VREs to access one or more e-Research
Infrastructures (e.g. EPOS, ENVRI+,
EXCELERATE)
 These in turn utilise common e-Infrastructures
(e.g. GEANT, EUDAT, PRACE, EGI)
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Proposed IG
 Address:




architectural principles
governance issues
technologies
design and development best practices
 Will relate to just about all RDA groups
 Draw on expertise of RDA groups
 Be based, when possible, on RDA output
products and recommendations
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Approaches
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Built upon:
 content management systems
 learning environments
 access to datasets
 analysis / visualisation / modelling software
tools
 digital libraries (publications)
 research management systems
 collaborative tools
An Overview (European)
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VRE
Reference Architecture
Components
Implementation
e-RI
e.g.
ENVRI
+
e-RI
e-RI
e-RI
e-RI
e.g.
EPOS
e-I (GEANT, EGI, OSC, EUDAT……)
Interfacing
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VRE
Reference Architecture
Components
Implementation
Collaboration
Communication
Research
Management
Interfaces to (for each e-RI):
(a) AAAI systems
(b) Catalog of users, datasets, software services, resources (computing,
equipment/detectors), services with associated information on rights,
costs
And from this……
(a) Access to datasets
(b) Access to (APIs of) software services
(c) Access to workflows
(d) Access to computing resources (including GRIDs and CLOUDs)
(e) Access to equipment/detectors for data taking and parameter control
Interfacing
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VRE
Reference Architecture
Components
Implementation
Collaboration
Communication
Research
Management
Interfaces to (for each e-RI):
(a) AAAI systems
(b) Catalog of users, datasets, software services, resources (computing,
equipment/detectors), services with associated information on rights,
costs
And from this……
(a) Access to datasets
(b) Access to (APIs of) software services
(c) Access to workflows
(d) Access to computing resources (including GRIDs and CLOUDs)
(e) Access to equipment/detectors for data taking and parameter control
Questions
 Interest: Is there interest in evolving from
BoF to IG?
If so:
 Organisation: more co-leads?
 Process: case statement (next)
 Schedule: timeline – aim for next plenary?
 Intermediate meetings: online?
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Case Statement
 Review and discuss
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Discussion
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Conclusions and next Steps
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