I wanted to share the recent announcement of this valuable international resource with the CNI community.
Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI
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International Knowledge Base on Virtual Research Environments now released
A knowledge base has now been launched providing information on international projects on Virtual Research Environments (VREs). Virtual Research Environments aim to help researchers from all disciplines to work collaboratively by managing the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in carrying out research on both small and large scales. The knowledge base also presents lessons learned, by showing relevant studies in this field. Through this website we aim to support funding bodies, institutions and researchers who are interested in developing and improving VREs. The VRE Knowledge Base is managed by the JISC, the UK’s expert on information and digital technologies for education and research and was developed in partnership with the Knowledge Exchange.
Sharing a wealth of projects
The directory of VREs includes projects funded by partners of the Knowledge Exchange initiative, i.e. the German Research Foundation, JISC in the UK, SURF in the Netherlands and DEFF in Denmark. It shows projects listed in VRE reports and several international projects that we identified during a short period of desk research. The list can be searched by funding body and subject area, with additional browsing features on software platform and country.
Overview of VRE literature
Under literature reports and scholarly publications on Virtual Research Environments are listed. The focus is on reports commissioned by members of the Knowledge Exchange initiative, but we have also included other publications referenced in those reports.
Synthesizing lessons learned
In 2010, an international workshop on Virtual Research Environments was held by the Knowledge Exchange in Rotterdam. One of the key recommendations was to synthesise “lessons learned through past and existing VRE projects and studies” into a publicly accessible VRE Knowledge Base. This website is a first step to what may become a more comprehensive undertaking in the future.
Who is involved?
The website is hosted and developed by JISC, in partnerships with members of the Knowledge Exchange. It was developed by Angela Wraight, Xiaojing Wang and Torsten Reimer (JISC), with input from members of the Knowledge Exchange VRE working group. For all questions regarding the website, please contact Torsten.
The Knowledge Base can be found at: http://misc.jisc.ac.uk/vre
Kind regards,
Keith
Keith Russell
Knowledge Exchange Coordinator | www.knowledge-exchange.info | kru@knowledge-exchange.info | Danish Agency for Culture | H.C. Andersens Boulevard 2, 2nd floor | DK-1553 Copenhagen V | Denmark | T +31 (0)30 234 66 99 | F +31 (0)30 233 29 60 |