Towards a definition of a VRE

• Some (almost) equivalent terms:

• • Collaboratory
  • • “... a center without walls in which the nation's researchers can perform research without regard to geographical location - interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, and accessing information from digital libraries.” (based on Wulf, 1989)
  • Cyberenvironment
  • • “to provide researchers with the ability to access, integrate, automate, and manage complex, collaborative projects across disciplinary as well as geographical boundaries.” (Dunning & Nandkumar, 2006)

• Key criteria

• • Do research – access disparate resources – collaborate – location independent – Multi/inter-disciplinary