Digital transformation of physical natural science collections has been underway for some time already but with the inclusion of the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) into the ESFRI Roadmap 2018 there is a new stimulus to unify a fragmented landscape into a coherent and responsive research infrastructure where ‘Digital Specimens‘ and ‘Natural Science Identifiers‘ can play an important role to improve access for scientists, policymakers and the public.
NGRE, VRE, VL, SG – What’s in an acronym?
I was interviewed today (5th April 2017) by Max Hammond, a consultant presently working on behalf of Jisc to make sense of the landscape around what Jisc calls “Next Generation Research Environments” (NGRE). Coincidentally, yesterday I had been involved in an exchange of emails in the context of the Horizon 2020 funded ENVRIplus and VRE4EIC projects about a proposed architecture for “Virtual Research Environments” (VRE). There I tried to make clear the distinction between VREs, Virtual Laboratories (VL) and Science Gateways (SG) as I presently understand them. Continue reading “NGRE, VRE, VL, SG – What’s in an acronym?”
5 things about software for research
Software is a critical element of many research endeavours, and not just scientific ones – And needs to be recognised as such. Continue reading “5 things about software for research”
Alex Hardisty 