Meeting title
VREs/Virtual laboratories/science gateways: opportunities for developing a more coordinated approach to support interoperability across different systems
Please give a short introduction describing the activities and the scope of the group
A virtual research environment (VRE), virtual laboratory or science gateway is defined as an online system helping researchers to collaborate. The key features of the VRE /VL/science gateway support researchers in their work by providing access to resources and technical infrastructures and by facilitating scholarly and management communication.
The proliferation of these VREs/virtual laboratories/science gateways, many of which serve specific disciplines or communities, has resulted in a range of different and incompatible architectures. The VRE IG seeks to bring together the various initiatives actively developing VREs, virtual laboratories and science gateways, along with the representatives of the common infrastructure services and the researchers seeking to make use of these technologies in an effort to identify the necessary technical aspects, governance issues and best practice required to support a more coordinated approach to the development of – and interoperation among - VREs.
Please provide additional links to informative material related to your group i.e. group page, Case statement, working documents etc
https://rd-alliance.org/node/51565/repository
Please list the meeting objectives
The proposed VRE interest group is currently developing a case statement. The key objective of this meeting is to bring together representatives and users of the various VRE/virtual laboratories/science gateways to gain an understanding of the technologies, resources and standards current employed by these initiatives in order to move towards an understanding of their requirements for a common architecture to support interoperability between the individual system.
Meeting agenda
1) Introduction: rationale for the VRE IG and aims for the session
2) Case statement : presentation and discussion of draft document
3) Use cases
a. Virtual laboratory (Australia)
b. Science Gateways (USA) Sandra Gessing
c. Natural History Museum VRE ( Europe) Dimitris Koureas (TBC)
d. Architectural concepts of new VREs: EVEREST, VRE4EIC…
4) Discussion: activities necessary to encourage convergence on common elements of a virtual research environment architecture
5) Conclusions/next actions
Audience: Please specify who is your target audience and how they should prepare for the meeting
Developers, custodians and users of VREs/virtual laboratories/science gateways
Group chair serving as contact person Helen Glaves