Jim Farmer instructional media + magic, inc. Virtual Research Environments VRE 1 One year later JISC Conference 2010 London, UK | 13 April 2010 Jim Farmer instructional media + magic, inc.

Virtual Research Environments programme (Phase 1) The aim of the programme is to engage the research community in: building and deploying Virtual Research Environments (VREs) based on currently available tools and frameworks assessing their benefits and shortcomings in supporting the research process improving and extending them to meet the future needs of UK research developing or integrating new tools and frameworks where appropriate solutions do not yet exist. www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/vre1

UK Research Productivity “The U.K. has the most productive research based in the G8. We produce more publications and citations per researcher and per pound of public funding than any of our major competitors. We are responsible for 8 percent of the world publications, and we have increased our global share of the most cited papers to 14 per cent.” (UK BIS 2009) #1 in papers (45.5) and citations (1,330) per billion GDP (29.2 citations/ paper) (Evidence Ltd 2009) The VRE1 projects report researchers believe VREs (100%) improve quality of their research and publish sooner.

Three questions Are VREs sustainable? Do VREs improve productivity? At least in the minds of the researchers Is the use of a VRE consistent with the trends in research methodology? Global collaboration Digital-based research methods “Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery” Sequence of projects

Q1 Sustainability Sustainability of virtual research environments—software, IC infrastructure, and processes—is when the community of users, including “free loaders” if open source, are willing to provide funding and/or support to maintain and advance the VRE. VRE Meeting, Leeds University, 22 Jun 2009 VREs of all (100%) projects were in use one year later. 80% improved their VRE during the first year following VRE1.

Q2: Productivity All reporting (100%) believed the VRE improved the quality of their research. Number of unpaid collaborators (beyond those proposed) increased (50%) Public use increased (67%) Increased data availability (67%); decreased (33%) Published earlier (60%) Papers were produced earlier (interviews).

Q3:Research methods Global collaboration Two collaborated with every Harvard education area. Both Cambridge and Hull previously participated in multi-national open source software projects All project communications were in English; all publications in English and none were translated by the project Digital-based research methods All (100%) reported more data was available, more data used, and more was archived. Sequence of projects Provision for subsequent projects by others is not yet a consideration.

Julian Newman on 4th Paradigm Julian Newman “Fourth Paradigm,” DPSI Short Talk, Glasgow Caledonian University, 1 December 2009

Julian Newman on 4th Paradigm Conclusions All of the following will be essential to 4th Paradigm Data Curation Good Software Engineering Practice Support for Teamwork [infrastructure] Critical Thinking Analysis of models “built into” instruments Explicit attention to Argumentation Support Julian Newman “Fourth Paradigm,” DPSI Short Talk, Glasgow Caledonian University, 1 December 2009.

Note The following is not evidence a VRE project was the source of the innovation but rather how the VRE Progamme supported the idea becoming a productive tool for researchers.

Innovation UK Style UK prof Carol Goble receives Jim Gray award Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog, 9 Dec 2008 At the 2008 Microsoft eScience Workshop, the first Jim Gray eScience Award was presented to Carole Goble in recognition of her contributions to the development of workflow tools to advance data-centric research. research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/escience2010/jim_gray_award.aspx The Goble-De Roure idea was developed, implemented, and made available to researchers throughout the world as MyExperiment.

Collaboration Euro Style Research Environments Scope Focus Notes UK Separate universities Research project productivity France 43 university consortium Productivity + reporting + curation + secure network uPortal + MyExperiment +Traverna + repository Other Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain) Required reporting U.S. Undefined Communication networks, super computing EUNIS Research Workshop 2010 Bologna, 19 March 2010

Suggestions VRE architecture – three levels: common, discipline specific, project specific (perhaps based on the organisation and authoring processes used for the DICOM standard (developed for the medical professions). Unified communications (UK MOD: “Network and Information Sciences International Technology Alliance,” IBM UK + 7 UK and 8 US universities) Best practices for data and document preparation, storage, and retrieval based on recommendations of the library community.

Jim Farmer JXF [at] immagic . com JXF [at] georgetown . edu The End Jim Farmer JXF [at] immagic . com JXF [at] georgetown . edu Except where otherwise noted, this presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License