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The list above is not meant to be a comprehensive list but it gives an indication of the type of functionality many VREs will contain and what sorts of interfaces they have with other systems and services. The scope of virtual research environments tends to be defined to encompass activities such as project management and research administration (cf., e.g., Borda et al. 2006, p. 3) and their relevance is therefore not limited to research active academics but extends to other professionals in the research context such as administrative or library staff. It is this breadth of vision that sets VREs apart from earlier concepts that were much more focused on solving specific problems arising from particular scientific endeavours.

A range of VREs have been funded by the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), which has funded a series of research programmes in this area (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/vre2.aspx). The VREs funded range from exemplars and demonstrators to institutional implementations and generic tools as well as supporting projects. Further examples of e-Research and VREs can be found in the literature, for example, in Foster and Kesselman (2004), Berman, Fox and Hey (2003) and Olson, Zimmerman and Bos (2008). Examples of VREs are mentioned in other chapters of the book and you can find videos in the Resources section of the online version.

Infrastructure and communities

As the technologies mature, the focus shifts from the technical problems of distributed computation to the embedding of these technologies into organisational settings, into arrangements within research communities and into the wider societal context. It has been pointed out that infrastructures for research need to be seen as socio-technical arrangements (e.g., Edwards et al . 2007) and that the use of advanced ICTs is not just limited to “big science” endeavours in a small number of disciplines but, rather, is starting to affect research activities across the board.

Most research data today exists in digital form, either because it is created digitally (‘born digital’) or through digitisation programmes ( ibid .). The concept of ‘content as infrastructure’ emphasises the increasing importance of collections of research data as a re-usable infrastructure that builds on top of the physical research computing infrastructure and traditional infrastructures such as scientific instruments or libraries.

As the name virtual research environment implies, the aim is not to build single, monolithic systems but rather socio-technical configurations of different tools that can be assembled to suit the researchers’ needs without much effort, working within organisational, community and wider societal contexts. The concept of a VRE suggests the seamless integration of resources needed by researchers throughout the lifecycle of a research undertaking. While current VRE implementations are difficult to customise by the individual researcher to meet their specific research needs, there is a trend to provide environments that allow for the dynamic configuration and assemblage of research tools.

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Source:  OpenStax, Research in a connected world. OpenStax CNX. Nov 22, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10677/1.12
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